Ethnic groups in Karachi include nearly all the major ethnic communities found in Pakistan, making Karachi one of the most ethnically diverse urban centers in the country. According to the 2023 Paistani census, Muhajirs form the largest ethnic group, comprising 50.60% of the city's population. They are followed by Pashtuns at 13.52% and Sindhis at 11.12%. Karachi's inhabitants, locally known as Karachiites, are composed of ethnolinguistic groups from all parts of Pakistan, as well as long-distance migrants from South Asia, making the city's population a cultural and demographic melting pot. At the end of the 19th century, the population of the city was approximately 105,000, with a gradual increase over the next few decades, reaching more than 400,000 on the eve of Pakistan's independence in 1947. The 2023 Pakistani census estimates Karachi's population at 20.3 million, [1] of which an estimated 30% are migrants from different backgrounds. The city's population is estimated to be growing at about 5% per year (mainly as a result of internal rural-urban migration), including an estimated 45,000 migrant workers coming to the city every month from different parts of Pakistan. [2]
Karachi is host to many Western expatriates. During World War II, about 3,000 Polish refugees from the Soviet Union were evacuated to Karachi by the British. Some of these Polish families settled permanently in the city. [3] [4] There are also communities of American [5] and British expatriates.
Following the independence of Pakistan in 1947, large numbers of Muslim refugees (Muhajirs) migrated from India. In Karachi, Urdu-speaking Muslims, now commonly referred to as Karachiwala, form the majority of the population. [6] Many of these refugees lost their land and property in India, though some were partially compensated by properties left by Hindus who migrated to India. Various ethnic groups, including Muslim Kutchi people, Gujaratis, Konkanis, Hyderabadis, Marathis, Rajasthanis, and Punjabis, also fled India and settled in Karachi. There is also a sizable community of Malayali Muslims in Karachi (the Mappila), originally from Kerala in South India. [7] Many non-Urdu-speaking Muslim refugees have since adopted Kutchi or Urdu as their primary language and have assimilated into the broader Karachiwala identity.[ citation needed ]
After the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, thousands of Biharis and Bengalis from Bangladesh arrived in the city. Today, Karachi is home to an estimated 1 to 2 million ethnic Bengalis, [8] [9] many of whom migrated during the 1980s and 1990s. They were followed by Rohingya Muslim refugees from western Myanmar (for more information, see Burmese people in Pakistan), [10] and Asian refugees from Uganda. Among Karachi's underprivileged minority communities are the Siddis (Sheedis), who are descended from African slaves and have largely adopted Sindhi as their native language. [11] Many other refugees from Central Asian countries constituting the former Soviet Union have also settled in the city as economic migrants. There are also communities of Arabs, Filipinos, and an economic elite of Sinhalese from Sri Lanka. [12] Expatriates from China have a history going back to the 1940s; today, many of the Chinese are second-generation children of immigrants who came to the city and worked as dentists, chefs and shoemakers. [12] [13]
The Pashtuns, originally from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Afghanistan, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and northern Balochistan, have settled in Karachi for decades and are now the city's second largest ethnic group after Muhajirs. [14] [15] [16] With an estimated population as high as 7 million, [14] Karachi is believed to have the largest urban Pakhtun population in the world, including approximately 50,000 registered Afghan refugees. [17] [18] [19] Pashtuns are estimated to constitute about 25% of Karachi's population, [20] and around 2 million Pashtuns are reported to be Urdu-speaking or assimilated Muhajirs.
Large numbers of Saraikis from southern Punjab have also settled in Karachi.
Karachi has the largest number of Urdu speakers (Muhajirs). [21] [22] As per the 2023 census, the linguistic breakdown of Karachi Division is:
| Language | Rank | 2023 census [23] | Speakers | 2017 census [24] | Speakers | 1998 census [25] | Speakers | 1981 census [26] | Speakers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Urdu | 1 | 50.60% | 10,315,905 | 42.30% | 6,779,142 | 48.52% | 4,497,747 | 54.34% | 2,830,098 |
| Pashto | 2 | 13.52% | 2,752,148 | 15.01% | 2,406,011 | 11.42% | 1,058,650 | 8.71% | 453,628 |
| Sindhi | 3 | 11.12% | 2,264,189 | 10.67% | 1,709,877 | 7.22% | 669,340 | 6.29% | 327,591 |
| Punjabi | 4 | 8.08% | 1,645,282 | 10.73% | 1,719,636 | 13.94% | 1,292,335 | 13.64% | 710,389 |
| Saraiki | 5 | 3.70% | 753,903 | 4.98% | 798,031 | 2.11% | 195,681 | 0.35% | 18,228 |
| Balochi | 6 | 3.97% | 808,352 | 4.04% | 648,964 | 4.34% | 402,386 | 4.39% | 228,636 |
| Others | 7 | 8.93% | 1,817,695 | 12.25% | 1,963,233 | 12.44% | 1,153,126 | 12.27% | 639,560 |
| All | 100% | 20,357,474 | 100% | 16,024,894 | 100% | 9,269,265 | 100% | 5,208,132 |
The category of "others" includes Hindko, Kashmiri, Kohistani, Burushaski, Gujarati, Memoni, Marwari, Dari, Brahui, Makrani, Khowar, Gilgiti, Balti, Arabic, Farsi, and Bengali. [27]
The ethnic groups in Karachi include members from all ethnic groups in Pakistan, making the city's population a diverse melting pot. At the end of the 19th century, the population of the city was about 105,000, with a gradual increase over the next few decades, reaching more than 400,000 on the eve of independence. Estimates of the population are approximately 23,000,000, of which an estimated 90% are migrants from different backgrounds. The city's population is estimated to be growing at about 5% per year (mainly as a result of internal rural-urban migration), including an estimated 45,000 migrant workers coming to the city every month from different parts of Pakistan. [2] According to the community leaders and social scientists there are over 1.6 million Bengalis and up to 400,000 Rohingyas living in Karachi. [28]
According to the census of 1998, the religious breakdown of the city was: Muslim (96.45%); Christian (2.42%); Hindu (0.86%); Ahmadiyya (0.17%); others (0.10%) (Parsis, Sikhs, Baháʼís, Jews and Buddhists).