PAKISTAN

Youth Fact Sheet

DRIVE data
as of 31 July 2022

The Documentation Renewal and Information Verification Exercise (DRIVE), a joint registration exercise carried out by the Government of Pakistan and UNHCR, verified and
updated the data of 1.28 million registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan and documented them with biometric Proof of Registration (PoR) smartcards.

INTRODUCTION
Youth, aged 15 to 24 years old, are in transition to adulthood and face unique risks and challenges that affect their development and wellbeing, which are further
exacerbated by displacement where access to rights and opportunities are often limited. However, young people are resilient and possess the ability to adapt and play
significant roles in bringing positive changes to their communities and societies. Empowering youth and engaging them in decisions that affect their lives will contribute
to long-term benefits towards a more peaceful, equitable and sustainable future. This has direct linkage to the Sustainable Development Goals. Six of the Sustainable
Development Goals including Education and Gender Equality have targets strongly focusing on youth, and over a third of the 169 SDG targets highlight the role of young
people and the importance of their empowerment, participation and well-being. Youth empowerment is also an integral part of the Solutions Strategy for Afghan
Refugees and its Support Platform.
Youth data acquired from the DRIVE exercise provides detailed information about educational levels, occupations, and skillsets of youth as well as their return intention.
The analysis shows general trends in these areas while highlighting gaps such as gender disparities in education. It provides opportunities for the government, donors,
and other stakeholders to address gaps and to create enabling conditions for youth through funding, programming, and promoting their meaningful engagement to
thrive and enhance their protection and solution prospects.

DEMOGRAPHICS 21% of refugees are youth 47% of youth are female 26% of youth are minors
• A total of 308,626 families (or 1,282,963 individuals) were verified during DRIVE. Youth - Gender breakdown
21% or 276,429 refugees are youth aged between 15 to 24 years old. 21%
• Among the youth, 53% are male and 47% are female, while 26% are minors and
21% of the PoR
74% are adults.
cadholders are
• 99% of youth were born and raised in Pakistan; and are second generation
aged 15 to 24
children of PoR cardholders.
years
• Regardless of their area of residence, youth still make up an average of 20% of
47% 53%
the PoR population residing in those provinces.
female male

Youth completed higher levels of education

YOUTH EDUCATION LEVEL 49% of youth reported attaining education. than general PoR population.

• 51% of youth reported having no education. Youth Education level vs General PoR population
• More youth reported studying or having completed some level of education (not including those with no education)
(49%) compared to the general PoR population (36%) above five years old.
• Of youth who reported having an education, 40% completed informal religious 43%
40%
education, 23% completed primary education, 13% completed secondary
education and 20% completed high secondary education as their highest level 32%
of education.
23%
• Whereas the majority of the PoR population only attained informal religious 20%
education (43%) or primary school (32%) as their highest level of education, the
13% 12%
youth attained a higher level of education – 13% at secondary level (compared
7%
to only 7% among the general population) and 20% at higher secondary level 4% 3%
2% 1%
(compared to only 12% in the general population) as their highest level of
education. Informal religious Primary Secondary Higher secondary University Other
• Only 1% or 1,933 individual youth reported attaining university level.
General PoR Youth

61%61%
Youth Education level vs General PoR population
(not including those with no education)
• The majority of female youth (similar to women and girls in general) still only Females and Males
attained their highest level of education in informal religious education (61%) and
36%
primary school (19%), compared to male youth who attained informal religious 32%
education (27%), and primary school (25%). 27% 25%27% 27%
• A higher percentage of male and female youth attained a higher level of 19% 17% 16%
education compared to the general population – 27% of male youth attained 10% 9%
higher secondary level compared to only 16% males in the general population; 9% 6% 5%
3% 3% 2% 1% 1% 3% 2% 3% 4%
of female youth attained higher secondary level compared to 5% females in the
general population. Informal religious Primary Secondary Higher secondary University Other

General PoR - MALES Youth - MALES General PoR - FEMALE Youth - FEMALE

YOUTH SKILLS 23% of youth reported skills 24% tailoring skill among female youth with skills
• 23% of total youth reported having skills, compared to 25% of total PoR population above five years old who reported having a skill.
• Among the youth who reported skills, 82% are male and 18% are female.
• The most commonly reported skills among male youth are domestic labour (24%), daily wage (24%), other (12%) and agriculture (9%).
• However, among female youth who reported a skill, the most commonly reported skills were tailoring (65%), cook and catering (9%) and carpet weaving (7%).

tailor 65% domestic labour 24%

18%

cook and catering 9% daily wage 24%

Of those youth
reporting skills only carpet weaver 7% other 12%
Of those femaleyouth Of those male youth
18% are women
reporting skills 65% reporting skills 46%
domestic labour 6% have tailoring skills agriculture & farming 9% have domestic labour
and daily wage
82%
other 5% driving 8% related skills

For further information please visit the Pakistan Operational Data Portal or please contact RBAPDIMA@unhcr.org
PAKISTAN
Youth Fact Sheet
DRIVE data
as of 31 July 2022

YOUTH OCCUPATION 23% ofanyouth declared having

occupation. 24% ofareyouth with occupation
minors. 10% of youth with occupation
are female.

• Of the total youth, 47% did not report having an occupation, 21% reported they were students, 7% reported they were housewives.
• 23% of youth declared an actual occupation (not including student or housewife).
• Of youth having an occupation, 76% are above 18 years old and 24% are minors between 15 and 17 years old; while 90% are male and 10% are female.
• The majority of youth reported to have the following occupations: 23% domestic manual labour, 18% other, 12% other manual labour, 6% agriculture, farming, fisheries and
livestock and 5% transportation or driver.
• Among female youth with occupation, 32% declared other, 23% tailoring, 23% home-based production, and 8% domestic manual labour.
• Among the youth, 349 are other qualified professionals, 225 are teaching professionals (10% of total population with this qualification are youth), 175 are finance and
accounting professionals (24% of total population with this qualification are youth), 133 are medical professionals, 45 are engineering professionals, 17 are legal
professionals, 16 are managers.
• Female youth make up 42% of the qualified teaching professionals among the youth with this qualification.

Cook or Caterer 1%
others 6%
Home-based
production 3% others 30%
23% Student
Tailor 3%
40%
Student
46% Male youth
Only 23% of Youth top 5
declared an Female
occupations
occupation youth top 5
Transportation 3%

Agriculture &
farming 4%
Other manual Domestic manual labour
labour 8% 14%
house wife 41%

YOUTH INTENTION TO RETURN TO AFGHANISTAN

19% total refugees intend to return to Afghanistan. 20% of those who intend to return are youth.
26% ofonlyyouth who intend to return have
informal religious education or no education. 30% of youth who intend to return declared an occupation.

• Of the total refugees verified or newly registered, 241,124 individuals or 19% indicated an intention to return to Afghanistan. Over 50,000 individuals are under five years old
and their intention to return reflects that of their parent or caregiver.
• Of those who intend to return, 20% or 47,979 individuals are youth between the ages of 15 and 24 years old. 46% of youth who intend to return are female and 54% are
male.
• No discernible difference in ages of youth who intend to return - there is no preference for return among adults or the minors.
• The largest number of refugees indicated their place of origin in Afghanistan was in Nangahar province (17%), Kunduz province (14%), Kabul province (9%), Baghlan province
(8%) and Logar province (8%). On average, 20% of refugees from those places of origin in Afghanistan are youth.
• Of the youth who intend to return, 28% have only informal religious education and 41% have no education. 493 individual youth have university education and intend to
return.
• Of the youth who intend to return, 32% are students, of whom 39% are female.
• Of the youth who intend to return, 30% declared an occupation (not student or housewife) – 26% domestic manual labour, 12% daily wages and 10% agriculture and farming.
• 363 youth who intend to return have qualified professions, including finance and accounting professionals (98) and teaching professionals (60).

Top 10 Provinces of origin in Afghanistan

The top 10 Provinces represent 80% of the

17% places of origin

Nangarhar, Kunduz, Kabul, Logar and

Baghlan provinces represent 55%
14%
20%
Out of the
241,124 who intend
9% to return, 20% are
8% Youth.
8%
Out of the 20%
6% 6% 5% (47,979), 46% are
5%
female and 54% are
3% male.

Nangarhar Kunduz Kabul Logar Baghlan Paktya Kunar Kandahar Laghman Hilmand
80%

For further information please visit the Pakistan Operational Data Portal or please contact RBAPDIMA@unhcr.org