Report says Hindu share of Pakistan's population fell below 2%

A report on religious demography says the Hindu share of Pakistan's population has fallen from 14.6% to under 2%, according to accounts of the finding carried by NDTV and the news network Shabakat Tawasul al-Ikhbariya.

Both outlets reported the same pair of figures. Neither account named the report's author, the organisation that published it, the years it covers or the data it rests on.

The reports present 14.6% as the starting point of the decline, but do not say which year that figure refers to, or whether it measures the territory that became Pakistan in 1947 or a later boundary. They also do not say what the report blames for the fall: migration, conversion, a lower birth rate, or some combination of these.

No federal ministry, official body or political party had responded to the finding in the reports. The accounts carried by the two outlets added no government figure, clarification or rebuttal.

Pakistan's national census records religious affiliation for every household, and the size and treatment of minority communities is a recurring subject of political argument in the country. The reports did not say whether the new figure is drawn from census data, from independent surveys or from estimates.

Without the underlying document, the 14.6% to under 2% comparison cannot be checked. The reports give a single pair of percentages and no breakdown by province, district or year. Sindh is home to most of Pakistan's Hindu population, but no provincial figures appeared in the accounts.

Minority representatives in Pakistan have in the past contested how their numbers are counted, while officials have defended the census process. Neither side was quoted in the reports carried on Wednesday.

This story will be updated if the report is published in full or if a government department comments on it.