25.1 million
children aged 5–16 are out of school in Pakistan
That is 35% of everyone in that age group, and the second-highest number of out-of-school children in the world.
UNICEF Pakistan, 2025Why it matters
25.1 million children in Pakistan are not in school.
That is roughly one in three of everyone aged five to sixteen, and the second-largest out-of-school population of any country on earth. Circle of Good does not pretend to solve that. We work on the part of it that a single monthly payment can actually fix.
Stock photo · PexelsThe figures
All of these come from UNICEF or from the Government of Pakistan’s own statistics. Each links to where it was published.
63%
of Pakistanis aged 10 and over can read and write
Up from 60% in 2018–19, and still the lowest literacy rate in South Asia.
Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, PSLM–HEIS, 2024–2551.9%
literacy among women, against 73.4% among men
In Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, more girls are out of school than boys.
Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, PSLM–HEIS, 2024–2554%
literacy in rural Pakistan, against 77.3% in cities
Where a child is born still decides most of what happens to their education.
Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, PSLM–HEIS, 2024–250.8%
of GDP is spent on education
UNESCO asks countries to spend between 4% and 6%. Pakistan spends less than a fifth of the lower figure.
Pakistan Economic Survey, reported by Dawn, 2024–2569%
of school-age children in Balochistan are out of school
The worst rate in the country. In Sindh it is 44%, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 34%, and in Punjab 27%.
UNICEF Pakistan, 2025It is far worse in some places than others
Share of children aged 5–16 who are out of school, by province.
- Balochistan
- 69%3.5m children
- Sindh
- 44%7.4m children
- Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
- 34%4.5m children
- Punjab
- 27%9.7m children
- Islamabad Capital Territory
- 15%0.09m children
Where a monthly fee comes into it
Research on national household survey data consistently identifies the cost of schooling as one of the main reasons children in Pakistan never enrol or drop out, and those costs fall hardest on the lowest-income households.
We have deliberately not put a percentage on that. No official Pakistani statistic gives a single national figure for how many children leave school specifically because their family cannot pay, and we would rather leave a gap than publish a number we cannot point you to.
What we can say is what we see. The families who reach us are not asking for a school to be built or a policy to change. They are behind by three months on a fee of four or five thousand rupees, and a child is about to be sent home over it.
That gap is the whole of our work
We do not run schools and we do not hold donations. We find the students closest to being sent home, check that their situation is what they say it is, and put them in front of somebody willing to pay the school directly.
Sources
Figures on this page were last checked on 24 September 2026.