Key facts
- Pakistan’s 2023 census counted 3,300,788 Christians, or 1.37% of the population.
- That is up from about 2.67 million (1.27%) in the 2017 census.
- Most Christians live in Punjab. Islamabad has the highest Christian share of any region.
- Church leaders say the real number is higher than the census shows.
Pakistan is home to one of the largest Christian communities in South Asia. Yet for many people outside the country, even the basic question of how many Christians live there has no clear answer. The best official source is the 7th Population and Housing Census, carried out in 2023 by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). It was Pakistan’s first digital census.
How many Christians are in Pakistan?
The 2023 census recorded 3,300,788 Christians, which is 1.37% of the people covered by the census’s religion question. Christianity is Pakistan’s third-largest religion, after Islam and Hinduism.
The census put Pakistan’s total population at about 241.5 million, growing at 2.55% a year since 2017. Muslims make up 96.35% of the population.
How the number has changed
| Census | Christians | Share of population |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | about 2.1 million | 1.59% |
| 2017 | about 2.67 million | 1.27% |
| 2023 | 3.30 million | 1.37% |
Between 2017 and 2023, the Christian count rose by more than 600,000 people, and the Christian share of the population rose again after falling between 1998 and 2017. The fall between 1998 and 2017 was widely questioned by church leaders at the time, who said Christians had been under-reported.
Where Pakistani Christians live
Most Pakistani Christians live in Punjab, home to about 2.46 million Christians, or roughly 1.9% of the province. Sindh, including Karachi, has about 550,000. Islamabad Capital Territory has the highest share of any region, at about 4.26%.
Around three in four Pakistani Christians are rural Punjabis. Roughly half of Pakistan’s Christians are Catholic and half Protestant, mainly Anglican and Presbyterian through the Church of Pakistan.
Why church leaders say the real number is higher
The official figures are disputed. After the 2023 results came out, the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan told UCA News he believed Christians made up around 3 to 4% of the population, not 1.37%. Anglican and National Council of Churches leaders made similar points.
Their concerns include:
- Missed households. During the census, Christian activists reported that some Christian homes and brick kiln families were not visited.
- Low awareness. Poverty and low literacy in some Christian communities made it harder for families to take part in a new digital process.
- Real consequences. Population counts shape political representation, job quotas and public funding, so an undercount can mean fewer resources for the community.
Why the numbers matter
Accurate data affects how many reserved seats minorities hold, how the 5% minority job quota is applied, and where governments, churches and donors put their money. For organizations that want to support Christians in Pakistan, the census is a starting point. It shows a growing community concentrated in Punjab and the capital.
That is where CSIF works. Our programs in Rawalpindi and Islamabad train pastors, women and young people in digital skills and help them start businesses, in the cities with some of the largest Christian communities in the country.
