ISLAMABAD: Punjab has 64.4 per cent of the country’s transgender population with 6,709 people registered in the category, reveals the census data released on Friday.

The country’s total population of transgender people reported in the sixth Popu­lation and Housing Census is 10,418.

The second highest population of transgender people is in Sindh — 2,527 or 24pc. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa houses 913 transgender people and Balochistan 109.

In the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the population of transgender people is 27 and in Islamabad 133.

On the order of the Supreme Court, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) included separate codes for disabled and transgender people in the census, which was conducted this year after a lapse of over 18 years.

Previously, no option was available for the transgender people and they were forced to mark themselves as those with disabilities.

The national data showed that 7,651 people in the category lived in urban areas and 2,767 in villages.

The transgender population in urban Punjab stood at 4,585 and in rural areas at 2,124. The data shows the population in cities is almost double that in rural areas.

In Sindh, the urban transgender population was 2,226 and rural 301. A similar trend was witnessed in KP with 690 transgender people in urban and 223 in rural areas.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2017