KARACHI, May 20 (APP):The sixth Population and Housing Census held for the first time in Pakistan which reported that total population of transgender people in the country was 21,774 persons.
The census 2017 final data showed that 55.12 per cent or 12,002 transgender people lived in urban localities and remaining 44.88 % or 9,772 people in the category were living in rural areas.
The largest chunk of transgender population -12,435 people registered in the category- lives in province of Punjab that constituted 57.11 per cent of the country’s transgender population, reveals the CCI approved final data of 6th Population and Housing Census released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The second highest population of transgender people was registered in Sindh with 5,954 or 27.34 percent. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa houses 9.18% of total population or 1999 transgender people and Balochistan 780. In the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the population of transgender people was 326 and in Islamabad 280.
On the order of the Supreme Court, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) had made arrangements for acquiring segregated data of TG community for the first time in the history of the country and included separate codes for disabled and transgender people in the census 2017. Previously, no option was available for the transgender people except being marked as those with disabilities.
The census data showed that the transgender population in urban Punjab stood at 6,818 and in rural areas at 5,617 while in Sindh, the urban transgender population was 3,807 and rural 2,147. Similarly in the federal capital Islamabad 156 out of total 280 transgender people took abode in urban areas.
A different trend was witnessed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, FATA and Balochistan, as in the KP 908 transgender people lived in urban and 1,091 in rural areas while in former FATA out of total 326 transgender persons 304 were living in rural localities. In Balochistan 219 people from transgender community lived in urban while 489 in rural areas.
The Census data further revealed that 94.26% population of transgender community was aged 18 and above whereas 8.24 % of their population comprised of senior citizens of 65 years and above. Interestingly the data did not show even a single transgender person below the age of 15 years in whole the country.
It is pertinent to mention here that preliminary data of the Census 2017 released late August 2017 reported transgender population in the country 10418 persons but recent data published by PBS has taken the number to 21774.
