Religion in Pakistan - Demographics of Religion in Pakistan

Demographics of Religion in Pakistan

Based on information collected from the Library of Congress, Pew Research Center, CIA World Factbook, Oxford University, University of Pennsylvania, U.S. State Department and others, the following is a list of estimations about the percentage of people professing different faiths in the country. These estimations vary considerably from source to source, depending on methods of research and databases that were used.

• Islam
  • Sunni: 80-95%
  • Shia: 5-20%

• Other religions
  • Christians: approx. 1.6% (2,800,000)
  • Hindus: approx. 1.6% (2,800,000)
  • Bahá'ís: 40,000 to 79,000
  • Sikhs: 20,000
  • Zoroastrian/Parsis: 1,600 to 20,000
  • Kalash: 3,000
• Ahmadi: approx. 1.42% (2,000,000) to 2.3% (4 million)

As of 2012, around 2,900,000 Pakistanis of non-Muslim faiths were holding the CNIC card, which can only be attained by citizens over 18 years of age. It is estimated that some 96% adult Pakistanis currently hold CNIC cards, and therefore the total adult population of non-Muslim religions seems to be over 3 million. Of the minority CNIC holders, 1,414,527 were Hindu, 1,270,051 were Christian, 125,681 were Qadiani, 33,734 were Bahais, 6,146 were Sikhs, 4,020 were Parsis, 1,492 were Buddhists and 66,898 were others (such as Kalasha Animists).