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INTRODUCTION
[ A | B ]
B. Socio-cultural environment
[ B-1 | B-2 | B-3
| B-4 | B-5 | B-6
| B-7 | B-8 | B-9
| B-10 ]
2. Demographic characteristics
According to the population census of 1981 (Population Census Organization, 1998), the NWFP population totalled 15.4 million (52 per cent male and 48 per cent female) which was 13.1 per cent of the national population. That figure excluded a Afghan refugee population of over 2 million. The population of the province is growing at the rate of 3.3 per cent per annum compared with 3 per cent of the national average. At that rate it will double in 21 years. The rapid increase in population will result in increasing demand for food, water, fuel, shelter and natural resources. Various factors such as poverty is also the main causes of population increase. Poor people must have many children in order to sure that they will be taken care of when they reach old age. Population by five-year age groups, sex in urban and rural areas of NWFP is given in annex table 1. The table shows that 46.8 per cent of the population is aged below 14 years, while 49.4 per cent belongs to the productive age group aged between 15 and 64 years; the remaining 3.8 per cent comprise the elderly group. According to population census of 1981, the total dependency rate was 102.3 per cent, while the child dependency rate was very high at 94.7 per cent compared with 7.6 per cent of elderly dependency.
Between 1981 and 1993 the urban population of the province grew at a rate of 4.2 per cent (Environment and Urban Affairs Division, 1994) compared with a 3.3 per cent total growth. If urbanization is considered as an indicator of development, then NWFP with half the national urbanization rate (15 per cent) accounts for only 7 per cent of the national urban population.
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