Traditional sources for vital statistics are the Civil Registration System (birth and death registration system) and population census. The Civil Registration System in Pakistan, as in several other developing countries appears to be highly deficient and inadequate to provide reliable birth and death statistics.

In the absence of efficient civil registration system and inability of decennial census to provide birth and death statistics, during the intercensal periods, several demographic surveys have been undertaken by the Federal Bureau of Statistics in the country since, early sixties either independently or in collaboration with other organizations. The current series of demographic surveys, known as Pakistan Demographic Survey (PDS) was launched in 1984. This report pertains to the data collected through PDS during 2005.
 

Objectives

 i.                  To collect statistics of births and deaths in order to arrive at various measures of fertility and mortality for Pakistan and its rural and urban areas;

 ii.           To estimates current rate of natural increase of population at national level. 

 iii.         To collect information on other selected characteristics of population to asses the impact of family planning and other Socio-Economic development programmes.

Sampling Frame: Federal Bureau of Statistics has developed its own sampling frame for urban area. Each city / town has been divided into a number of enumeration blocks (EBs). Each enumeration block consists of 200-250 households on the average with well-defined boundaries and maps. The lists of enumeration blocks was updated during 2003 and the lists of villages/mouzas/dehs published /prepared by Population Census Organization have been undertaken as sampling frame. Enumeration blocks and villages have been considered as primary sampling units (PSUs) for urban and rural domain respectively.