Major Ethnic Groups in Pakistan

The major ethnic groups are: Punjabis (44.68% of the population), Pashtuns (15.42%), Sindhis (14.1%), Seraikis (8.38%), Muhajirs (7.57%), Balochis (3.57%) and others (6.08%). As of early 2007, about 2 million registered Afghan refugees remain in Pakistan as a result of the on going war and instability in Afghanistan.
Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. Punjabi is the largest indigenous language and is spoken by over 60 million people, but has no official recognition in the country. Other significant languages spoken in Pakistan include (in order of number of speakers): Pashto, Sindhi, Saraiki, and Balochi; English is mostly spoken by educated peoples.
Census data indicates that 97% of the population are Muslims, (nearly 70% are Sunni Muslims and 30% are Shi'a Muslims). Minority religions include Hinduism (1.85%), Christianity (1.6%), as well as much smaller numbers of Sikhs (Around 0.04%), Parsis, Ahmadis, Buddhists, Jews, Bahá'ís, and Animists (mainly the Kalasha of Chitral). Pakistan is the second most populous Muslim-majority country and also has the second largest Shi'a population in the world.
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