FATA [ Federally Administered Tribal Area ] (original) (raw)

According to census data from 1998, FATA is home to a population of roughly 3.18 million. Annual population growth in the intercensal period of 1981 to 1998 is calculated to be 2.19 per cent but certain agencies and FRs buck this trend, showing a decline during the same period. Population density for 1998 stands at 117 persons per square kilometre in FATA as a whole, with wide variations between individual agencies and FRs. In Dera Ismail Khan FR, for example, the population is thinly scattered with 19 persons per square kilometre, while population density in Bajaur Agency reaches 461 persons per square kilometre.

The average annual population growth for FATA is slightly lower than the provincial average of 2.8 per cent and the national average of 2.7 per cent (GoP, 1998a). The average household in FATA consists of 9.3 persons, compared to 8 persons in the NWFP and 6.8 persons in the country as a whole.

The gender ratio of 108 males for every 100 females is somewhat perplexing, since some 126,577 persons, most of whom are likely to be men, are recorded as migrants from FATA in other parts of Pakistan during the 1998 census. This should in theory leave a higher proportion of females in the local population. Census reporting in FATA is likely to have been distorted by problems in gathering data, since tribal custom forbids the disclosure of information about women to outsiders.