STATISTICS

Residing in the seventh most populous country, Pakistan's 150 million people live under some of the most difficult conditions in the world. According to the 2007 UNDP Human Development report, Pakistan ranked 136 out of 177 countries in the world - the bottom 8% globally.

THE CURRENT STATE OF PAKISTAN

• 33% live below the international poverty line
• 40% have no access to basic health services
• 45% have no access to safe drinking water
• 50% of all Pakistanis are illiterate
• 65% of rural Pakistanis (60% of the total population) are illiterate
• 70% of women are illiterate
  

THE BENEFITS OF EDUCATION

• A mother with a primary education is 5 times (500%) more likely to send her children to school than a mother with no education.
• The number of children born to a woman decreases by 40% if the woman has had a primary education
• Former Secretary of the Treasury, Larry Summers estimated that investing $40,000 a year to educate 1,000 Pakistani girls has the highest social rate of return in the world.
• According to the World Bank the single largest determinant of economic growth for eight East Asian economies was education.
• Studies show that on average one additional year of schooling is associated with an annual increase in farming output of between 2% and 5%. For an agricultural economy such as Pakistan, this is a critical fact.