Demographics of Sindh

The estimated population of Sindh in 2014 is 56 million. Sindh is the most urbanized and industrialized province of Pakistan.

Sindh Demographic Indicators
Indicator Statistic
Urban population 49.50%
Rural population 50.50%
Population growth rate 2.80%
Gender ratio (male per 100 female) 112.24
Economically active population 22.75%
Historical populations
Census PopulationUrban
19516,047,74829.23%
19618,367,06537.85%
197214,155,90940.44%
198119,028,66643.31%
199829,991,16148.75%
201255,245,497 (invalidated)[1]n/a
Religions in Sindh[2]
Religion Percent
Muslim
  
 94.81%
Hindu
  
 5%
Others
  
 0.19%

Sindh has the 2nd highest Human Development Index out of all of Pakistan's provinces at 0.628.[3] The 1998 Census of Pakistan indicated a population of 30.4 million. Just under half of the population are urban dwellers, mainly found in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah District, Umerkot and Larkana. Sindhi is the sole official language of Sindh since the 19th century.

The Sindhis as a whole are composed of original descendants of an ancient population known as Sammaat, various sub-groups related to the Baloch origin are found in interior Sindh and to a lesser extent Sindhis of Pashtun origins. Sindhis of Balochi origins make up about 30% of the total Sindhi population (they however speak Sindhi as their native tongue), while Urdu-speaking Muhajirs make over 20% of the total population of the province. According to Dr. Akhtar Baloch, Professor at University of Karachi, the Balochis migrated from Balochistan during the Little Ice Age. The Little Ice Age is conventionally defined as a period extending from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries,[4][5][6] or alternatively, from about 1300[7] to about 1850.[8][9][10] Although climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of this period, which varied according to local conditions. According to Professor Baloch, the climate of Balochistan was very cold and the region was inhabitable during the winter so the Baloch people migrated in waves and settled in Sindh and Punjab.[11]

Languages

According to the 1998 Population Census of Pakistan following are the Major Languages of the Province[12]

Other languages include Gujarati, Memoni, Dari, Kutchi, Bengali, Thari, Lari (dialect), Jogi and Brahui.

Sindhi language

Sindhī (Arabic script: سنڌي) is spoken by more than 25 million people(in 2011) in the province of Sindh. However 7% people are Sindhi-speaking in the largest city of Karachi Sindh, Pakistan. Karachi is also populated by migrants from India who speak Urdu .[13] The other migrated inhabitants of the city are Biharis from Bangladesh, Pastuns from Khaybar Pakhtoonkhwah, Punjabis from various parts of Punjab and other linguistic groups of Pakistan. Most of these Urdu-speaking people sought refuge in the city from India during the independence of Pakistan, and they settled in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkar and other cities in Sindh.[13] Sindhi is an Indo-European language, linguistically considered to be the sister language of Sanskrit. Balochi, Punjabi, Rajasthani language have influences of Sindhi and Sanskrit however accommodating substantial Persian, Turkish and Arabic words.

In Pakistan Sindhi is written in a modified Arabic script, where the majority of the Sindhi population is Muslim. Hindu Sindhis who migrated to India after independence (currently are about 6 million) still register their mother tongue as Sindhi, meanwhile 3 million Hindu Sindhis are living in Pakistan.

Key dialects: Kutchi, Lasi, Parkari, Memoni, Lari, Vicholi, Utradi, Macharia, Dukslinu (spoken by Hindu Sindhi) and Siraki. During British colonial period, Siraiki evolved as a separate language.

Urdu language

Urdu is another widely used language in Sindh, especially in the urban areas of Sindh alongside Sindhi and is the lingua franca of Pakistan. It is another Indo-Aryan language with strong linguistic ties to Sindhi. It is mostly spoken and understood in urban areas, because the foreign settlers mainly from North India, Bengal, Baluchistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab are settled there. The local ethno-linguistic indigenous population only understands Urdu. The languages of the above-mentioned people are not spoken or understood by the original dwellers of Sindh.

Parkari Koli language

Parkari Koli (sometimes called just Parkari) is a language mainly spoken in the province of Sindh, Pakistan. It has 250,000 speakers (1995).

Religion

Sindh's population is mainly Muslim (95.32%), and Sindh is also home to nearly all (93%) of Pakistan's Hindus, who form 4.8% of the province's population.[2] The majority of Muslims are Sunni Hanafi followed by Shia Ithnā‘ashariyyah. The non-Muslim communities include Hindus, Christians, and Zoroastrians. A large number of Hindus migrated to India after independence of Pakistan in 1947 while Muslim refugees, Muhajirs, arrived from India.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Population shoots up by 47 percent since 1998". Thenews.com.pk. Retrieved 2012-08-03.
  2. 1 2 1998 Census Data
  3. ↑ (PDF) https://web.archive.org/web/20090521023211/http://www.spdc.org.pk/pubs/rr/rr73.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 21, 2009. Retrieved November 21, 2010. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. ↑ Mann, Michael (2003). "Little Ice Age". In Michael C MacCracken and John S Perry. Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Change, Volume 1, The Earth System: Physical and Chemical Dimensions of Global Environmental Change (PDF). John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
  5. ↑ Lamb, HH (1972). "The cold Little Ice Age climate of about 1550 to 1800". Climate: present, past and future. London: Methuen. p. 107. ISBN 0-416-11530-6. (noted in Grove 2004:4).
  6. ↑ "Earth observatory Glossary L-N". NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Green Belt MD: NASA. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  7. ↑ Miller et al. 2012. "Abrupt onset of the Little Ice Age triggered by volcanism and sustained by sea-ice/ocean feedbacks" Geophysical Research Letters 39, 31 January: abstract (formerly on AGU website) (accessed via wayback machine 11 July 2015); see press release on AGU website (accessed 11 July 2015).
  8. ↑ Grove, J.M., Little Ice Ages: Ancient and Modern, Routledge, London (2 volumes) 2004.
  9. ↑ Matthews, J.A. and Briffa, K.R., "The 'Little Ice Age': re-evaluation of an evolving concept", Geogr. Ann., 87, A (1), pp. 17–36 (2005). Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  10. ↑ "1.4.3 Solar Variability and the Total Solar Irradiance - AR4 WGI Chapter 1: Historical Overview of Climate Change Science". Ipcc.ch. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  11. ↑ From Zardaris to Makranis: How the Baloch came to Sindh
  12. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-09-12. Retrieved 2011-12-28.
  13. 1 2 "Political and ethnic battles turn Karachi into Beirut of South Asia » Crescent". Merinews.com. Retrieved 2012-11-24.
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