How common is divorce compared with widowhood in Pakistan?
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Direct answer
In the 2023 Census, 5,400,798 people aged 15 or older were recorded as widowed and 499,017 as divorced. These represented 3.78% and 0.35% of the population aged 15+, so widowhood was recorded nearly eleven times as often as current divorced status. The comparison does not measure the lifetime probability of either event. Divorced people who remarry move into the married category, and widowhood is strongly shaped by age, gender differences in longevity and remarriage patterns.
Sources used
Population age 15 and above by marital status, Census 2023
Pakistan Bureau of Statistics
Census 2023, Table 6: population aged 15+ by sex, age group, marital status and rural/urban residence. Counts are census stocks, not annual marriages or divorces.Source checked:
View sourceNational Census Report 2023
Pakistan Bureau of Statistics
Official census report defining marital-status categories and reporting national and provincial distributions.View source