Sometimes, it’s the simplest data that tells the most powerful story of change—quietly unfolding, often unnoticed.

Gallup Pakistan Digital Analytics has digitized the Census 2023 dataset, unlocking granular insights into Pakistan’s evolving landscape.

Take this snapshot from a single table—female literacy rates in a remote tehsil of Swat district, one of the more rural and harder-to-reach areas of the country.

The generational shift is striking:

Among women aged 60 and above, literacy is below 10%.
Among girls aged 10–12, literacy has soared to 71%.
The gender gap is closing:
In the 60+ age group, men were three times more likely to be literate than women.

Among 10–12-year-olds, the gap narrows significantly—84% of boys are literate compared to 71% of girls.

This isn’t a perfect picture. Inequalities persist. But it’s a rapidly improving one—and a testament to progress that can go unnoticed when we only focus on averages.

Pakistan still has many challenges—but this data gives every reason to be cautiously optimistic.