- ISO 3166
PK- Primary locale
ur-PK- Currency
- PKR · Pakistani Rupee
- Region
- APAC · SA · MENAP
Pakistan
Pakistan has 252.4M people, and 144.5M of them are online. Urdu is the most widely spoken language at 95%, one of 21 languages CLDR lists here. Urdu and English are official nationally. A product shipping here defaults to ur-PK.
At a glance
Each figure is drawn against the rest of the world, so a number means something before you have any other market to compare it with.
People online
144.5M
0%world median 81%100%
57% of 252.4M people use the internet, per the World Bank's 2024 figure. CLDR population multiplied by that share, so read it as an estimate rather than a headcount.
Income per person
$1,596
Higher than 15% of 213 territories
GDP per capita in current US dollars, World Bank Open Data, most recent reported year. A rough guide to what people can spend, not what your product will earn.
Can pay online
27%
0%world median 71%100%
Adults aged 15 and over holding a bank or mobile-money account, World Bank Global Findex 2024. Below half means a card-only checkout excludes most of the market.
Languages
21
Urdu 95% · Punjabi 70% · English 50%
Languages CLDR records here with a share of 0.1% or more. 2 of them are official nationally.
English proficiency
493
Very lowVery high
Low proficiency on the EF EPI 2025 scale. The sample is self-selected online test takers, so treat it as colour for a discussion. It never enters any score on this site.
Adult literacy
55%
0%world median 95%100%
Share of adults who can read, as recorded in CLDR territory data. Low literacy shifts a product toward icons, audio, and video before it shifts toward another language.
What people speak
Shares count first and second languages, so they sum past 100% and one bilingual person is counted twice.
Most spoken in Pakistan
share of 252.4M people
- Urduofficial95%239.7M
- Punjabi70%176.7M
- Englishofficial50%126.2M
- Western Panjabi40%100.9M
- Pashto16%40.4M
- Sindhi15%37.9M
- Saraiki12%30.3M
- Baluchi3%6.6M
Filled bars are nationally official languages. Every bar is drawn against the largest language rather than against 100%, so a 1% language stays visible. 13 more languages sit below the top eight, at 6.0% combined.
One country understates a language. CLDR records diaspora too, so a language usually reaches further than any single page shows. The language profiles show each one's full footprint.
What you would ship
Configuration for day one, computed live with Intl.* against ur-PK, the dominant locale for this market.
Plural categories
2
Standard. Use Intl.PluralRules for the few cases that matter.
Script family
Arabic
Bundle a Noto-class webfont that covers this script. OS defaults vary.
Reading direction
Right-to-left
Use logical CSS properties (padding-inline-start, etc.). Wrap interpolated LTR with <bdi> or FSI/PDI.
Date
21 اپریل، 2026
Short: 21/4/26
Time
6:30 PM
Week starts Sun
Currency
Rs 1,235
1,234.56 in PKR · Pakistani Rupee
The engineering behind the flags: Bidirectional text: why the dollar sign wanders in an RTL string · RTL layouts: what flips and what doesn't · Font fallback: why the OS picks the wrong glyphs for this script