World at 8 Billion: Pakistan Is Third Largest Contributor to Last Billion
By Riaz Haq
CA

The global population increased by one billion over the last 12 years to reach 8 billion this year, according to the United Nations. Pakistan contributed 49 million people to the last billion, making it the third largest contributor after India (177 million) and China (73 million). 

More than half of the projected increase in the global population up to 2050 will be concentrated in eight countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and the United Republic of Tanzania.

Rising working age population is turning Pakistan into a major global consumer market. It is also fueling Pakistan's growing surplus labor exports and record overseas worker remittances. 

Pakistan among top 3 Contributors to last billion population - UN/Worldometers

World's Seventh Largest Consumer Market

Pakistan's share of the working age population (15-64 years) is growing as the country's birth rate declines, a phenomenon called  demographic dividend . With its rising population of this working age group, Pakistan is projected by the World Economic Forum to become the world's  seventh largest consumer market  by 2030.

Nearly 60 million Pakistanis will join the consumer class (consumers spending more than $11 per day) to raise the country's consumer market rank from 15 to 7  by 2030. WEF forecasts the world's top 10 consumer markets of 2030 to be as follows: China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Russia, Brazil, Pakistan, Japan, Egypt and Mexico.  Global investors chasing bigger returns will almost certainly shift more of their attention and money to the biggest movers among the top 10 consumer markets, including Pakistan.  Already, the year 2021 has been a banner year for investments in Pakistani  technology startups . 

(Riaz Haq is a Silicon Valley-based Pakistani-American analyst and writer. He blogs at  www.riazhaq.com )