Reliable research on Pakistan starts with official data. The challenge for analysts outside the country is knowing which institution holds which series, how current it is, and what its limitations are. This guide sets out the main sources and the practical points to watch.
National statistics
Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS)
The PBS is the national statistics office. Its main products include:
- The Population and Housing Census. The 2023 census was Pakistan’s first digital census and is the current baseline for population figures.
- The Labour Force Survey, covering employment, unemployment and occupations.
- The Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) and the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM), covering household income, consumption, education and health.
- Price statistics, including the Consumer Price Index and the weekly Sensitive Price Indicator.
- Merchandise trade statistics, published monthly.
Survey rounds are not annual for every series, so the latest available year differs by indicator. Always record the survey year alongside the figure.
Economy and finance
State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)
The SBP publishes the balance of payments, exports and imports of services by category and by country, workers’ remittances, foreign direct investment by country and sector, banking statistics, interest and exchange rates, and the Foreign Exchange Manual. Its economic data portal provides downloadable time series, usually monthly. Recent months are often revised, so note the date of retrieval.
Finance Division
The Finance Division publishes the Pakistan Economic Survey each year shortly before the federal budget, with chapters on each sector, and the federal budget documents themselves, including the annual budget statement and the federal development programme.
Federal Board of Revenue (FBR)
The FBR publishes tax laws, statutory regulatory orders, customs tariffs and tax statistics. Statutory regulatory orders are the main way tax and duty rates change between budgets, so they are essential for any analysis of a sector’s tax position.
Companies and sectors
- SECP maintains the company register and publishes disclosures of listed companies, together with data on insurance, non-bank finance and capital markets.
- Pakistan Stock Exchange filings provide annual reports and material information for listed companies.
- Sector regulators publish licensing data, tariff determinations and sector reports: for example NEPRA’s State of Industry report for power, and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s indicators for telecoms.
- Trade bodies such as the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan and the Pakistan Software Export Board publish export promotion information and sector data.
Provincial sources
Much of Pakistan’s spending and service delivery is provincial, so provincial sources are essential for analysis below the national level:
- Provincial budget documents and annual development programmes.
- Provincial bureaus of statistics, which publish development statistics and, with UNICEF support, the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) on child and household wellbeing.
- Provincial revenue authorities, which publish rules and data on sales tax on services.
Some provincial material is published only in Urdu or only on provincial portals, which is a common reason analysts abroad miss it.
Practical cautions
- Fiscal years run July to June. “FY2025-26” or “FY26” means July 2025 to June 2026. Mixing fiscal and calendar years is a common error in comparisons.
- Classifications change. Services trade data moved to the BPM6 and EBOPS 2010 classification, and some categories were reorganised. Check definitions before building long time series.
- Headline figures differ between sources. Media reports, ministry statements and SBP data can give different figures for the same indicator because of revisions or different definitions. Go to the primary series and state which one you used.
- Portals change. Official websites are periodically restructured and file links break. Keep a copy of the source file with its retrieval date.
Working with PIVRA
Our Literature Reviews & Evidence Synthesis service includes data and indicator compendia compiled from these sources, with every series documented and referenced.