Country statistics    Population 160.9 million Land mass 310,401 square miles People per square mile 519 Life expectancy 64 years Under age 5 mortality rate 97/1,000 Literacy rate 50% Access to safe water 91% Average annual income US$770 Religion Muslim 97% Other (Christan, Hindu, etc.) 3%

Pakistan, the sixth most populous country in the world, borders India, China, Afghanistan, Iran, and the Arabian Sea. Its portion of the Indus River is 1,000 miles long and flows through the country’s fertile center. North Pakistan has some of the world’s tallest mountains, including K2, the second-highest mountain in the world. Pakistan is earthquake-prone, and the rainy season (July-August) causes frequent flooding. The climate is typically hot with milder temperatures during the winter. Natural resources include salt, limestone, natural gas reserves, coal, and iron ore. Raw sewage, industrial wastes, and agricultural runoff contribute to water contamination.

The Punjabis, Pashtuns, and Sindhis make up 75 percent of the population of Pakistan’s ethnic groups. Other groups include immigrants from India (known as Muhajirs) and Afghan refugees. English, the official language, is used in government and business matters and is taught in schools. There have been discussions to replace English with the Urdu language—recognized as the “unifying” language throughout the country. Introduced in the eighth century, Islam became the country’s official state religion in 1956. Today, Pakistan has the second-largest Muslim population in the world behind Indonesia. Approximately 97 percent of Pakistanis are Muslim. Christians and Hindus make up most of the remaining three percent.

Pakistan emerged from British rule in 1947 as an independent sovereign state that was split into eastern and western territories. To the growing resentment of East Pakistan, the West controlled the country’s political and economic power. After several years of war, East Pakistan broke away to become the independent state of Bangladesh in March 1971. Seven years later, under military rule, Pakistan’s secular policies were replaced by the Islamic Shariah legal code.

In 1988, Benazir Bhutto, daughter of a popular former president of Pakistan, became the country’s first female prime minister. The economic and political situation worsened in the 1990s until, in 1999, General Pervez Musharraf assumed executive powers. After being convicted of corruption and sentenced to several years in jail, Bhutto fled the country and went into hiding.

In late 2007, President Musharraf won his re-election bid, but the Supreme Court challenged the outcome, stating that the president may have been ineligible to run. Ex-prime minister Bhutto returned to the country during the turmoil to challenge the president’s legitimacy, but in November 2007, the court ruled the elections were fair and Musharraf regained his title. Bhutto was assassinated in December 2007 at an election rally, causing rioting throughout the country. In August 2008, Musharraf resigned ahead of an impeachment trial. Asif Ali Zardari, widower of Benazir Bhutto, was elected president a month later.

Pakistan’s economy has gradually transitioned from an agriculture base to a more industrialized base. Industries include textiles and apparel, food processing, pharmaceuticals, construction materials, paper products, and fertilizer. Due in large part to a lack of education and a low average family income, approximately 3.6 million children under the age of 14 work, mostly in exploitative and hazardous labor. The unemployment rate is 7.5 percent; however, the rate of underemployment is substantial among working adults. Estimates range from 25 to 33 percent of people who live below the poverty line, while nearly 85 percent live on less than two dollars per day.

The official literacy rate in Pakistan is listed as 50 percent; however, 63 percent of males are literate while only 36 percent of women can read and write. The primary school attendance rate for males is 62 percent and 11 percent lower for females. That figure drops to 23 percent and 18 percent, respectively, by the time children reach secondary school age. Pakistani children face poor access to education and health facilities. Nearly 38 percent of children under age 5 are critically underweight.

An earthquake registering a magnitude 7.6 struck the Kashmir region in northwest Pakistan in October 2005, killing more than 73,000 people—18,000 of whom were children. Millions were left homeless by the quake that destroyed half of the region’s capital city, Muzaffarabad.