On 1 January 2026 Prof Ahsan Iqbal Federal Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives launched the Household Integrated Economic Survey 2024-25 conducted by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. The ceremony at the Ministry of Planning brought together Chief Statistician Dr Naeem uz Zafar SI Muhammad Sarwar Gondal SI Member SS/RM Deputy Director General Rabia Awan members of the Technical Committee and senior ministry officials. Endorsed by the Technical Committee the survey marks Pakistan’s first fully digital HIES following the Digital Population and Housing Census 2023 and completed fieldwork in June 2025 after quarterly rounds covering 32 000 households nationwide.
The Digital HIES used a fully integrated enterprise resource planning system for data collection task management and real time monitoring and delivers a wide range of social and economic indicators. Literacy rose to 63 percent from 60 percent while out of school children declined from 30 percent to 28 percent. Household mobile or smartphone ownership reached 96 percent and household internet access jumped from 34 percent to 70 percent with individual internet use increasing from 17 percent to 57 percent.
Health and demographic measures showed improvement as full immunization based on records moved from 68 percent to 73 percent neonatal mortality fell from 41 to 35 per thousand live births and infant mortality declined from 60 to 47 per thousand live births. Total fertility rate edged down from 3.7 to 3.6 children per woman.
Household incomes and consumption increased with food accounting for 37 percent of spending and housing and fuel taking 26 percent. Expenditure on restaurants and hotels was 6.63 percent clothing and footwear 6.28 percent and transport 6.21 percent at the national level. Use of clean fuels such as natural gas LPG biogas solar and electricity rose to 38 percent.
Minister Ahsan Iqbal described the survey as a milestone for data driven governance and noted recent digital censuses and surveys as part of institutional transformation. He underlined the need to tackle the education emergency aiming to raise participation to 90 percent and to bring 25 million out of school children into classrooms. He urged policy continuity political stability and capacity development while expressing optimism for around 4 percent GDP growth in the current fiscal year and called for focused action on stunting enrollment healthcare and other measurable outcomes.
Deputy Director General Rabia Awan presented the key results and PBS emphasised that HIES 2024-25 supports monitoring of 31 of 62 Sustainable Development Goal indicators and provides an evidence base for targeted policy interventions. The Digital HIES results signal progress in connectivity education health and household welfare while highlighting remaining challenges that require sustained policy attention.
