Islamabad: According to Gallup Pakistan, new data from the Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) show that literacy attainment in Pakistan is overwhelmingly shaped by income, with gender and urban-rural location compounding the gap rather than replacing it.
Across Pakistan, moving from the poorest to the richest income quintile is associated with an increase of nearly 38 percentage points in literacy, underscoring that education outcomes closely track household economic position. This relationship holds consistently across men and women, and across urban and rural populations.
Among the poorest quintile, literacy levels remain low across all groups: urban males (56%), urban females (42%), rural males (49%), and rural females (28%). By contrast, in the richest quintile, literacy rises sharply for all-reaching 93% among urban males, 83% among urban females, 84% among rural males, and 65% among rural females.
Gender gaps persist at every income level. In each quintile, men remain more literate than women, and urban populations outperform rural ones. However, the data make clear that income dominates these
differences: a poor urban female remains worse off than a rich rural male, indicating that geography cannot compensate for poverty. Rural women face a double disadvantage, recording the lowest literacy levels at every income tier. Yet the steep income gradient for rural females-from 28% in the poorest quintile to 65% in the richest-also demonstrates that policy and systems can move outcomes substantially.
This analysis was conducted and released by Gallup and Gilani Pakistan, the Pakistani affiliate of Gallup International. It draws on data from the Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) conducted by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, covering literacy outcomes for the population aged 10 years and above for the period from September 2024 to June 2025.
Gilani Research Foundation is a not-for-profit public service project to provide social science research to students, academia, policymakers, and concerned citizens in Pakistan and across the globe.
Gilani Research Foundation is headed by Dr. Ijaz Shafi Gilani who pioneered the field of opinion polling in Pakistan and established Gallup Pakistan in 1980. Currently, Dr. Gilani, who holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and has taught at leading universities in Pakistan and abroad, is Chairman of Gallup Pakistan.
Gallup Pakistan is not related to Gallup Inc. headquartered in Washington D.C. USA. We require that our surveys be credited fully as Gallup Pakistan (not Gallup or Gallup Poll). We disclaim any responsibility for surveys pertaining to Pakistani public opinion except those carried out by Gallup Pakistan, the Pakistani affiliate of Gallup International Association.