Recently, the rapid withdrawal of US troops, change in government, and escalating humanitarian crisis in neighboring Afghanistan impacted not only Pakistan but the entire region. To assess the impact of the tumultuous past few months on Pakistanis, GeoPoll conducted a survey in October 2021, following up on our study from January 2021.

The survey gathers on the ground feedback from Pakistanis on a number of regionally important topics, including:

• Foreign influences on the economy, military, politics, and culture of Pakistan
• Perceptions on the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan
• Thoughts on immigration, security, and international aid
• The ongoing impacts of COVID-19
• Personal finances and the country’s economy

Findings from the survey show continued Pakistani support for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. Most do not support Pakistan allowing more Afghan refugees, however, worrying about their impact on the economy and security. COVID-19 continues to present economic challenges as well, with most reporting a decrease in income compared to before the pandemic. Despite these hardships, several positive trends surfaced, including an increase in likeliness to take the vaccine as soon as possible and an optimistic outlook for Pakistan’s future.

Click below to download GeoPoll’s full written report, or scroll down to view the survey data in the interactive data dashboard.

Interactive Data Dashboard

Dive deeper into GeoPoll’s on-the-ground data from Pakistan using the dashboard below. Here, you can view all pieces of data from this study, filterable by Province, age group, gender, and question.

Conduct Research in Pakistan

This study provides on the ground data and insights on pressing topics of interest in Pakistan. GeoPoll can conduct research in Pakistan via 2-way SMS surveys, Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) voice calls, mobile web links, and in-person research methods. To learn more about GeoPoll’s capabilities in Pakistan and around the world, please contact us.

The post GeoPoll Report: Follow-up Pakistan Study on Afghanistan, Immigration, and COVID-19 appeared first on GeoPoll.

Although Pakistan has not recorded as many COVID-19 cases as India and other countries, lockdowns and other measures including the closure of schools to stop the spread of the pandemic have upended life for many in Pakistan in the past year. Actions related to COVID-19 combined with extreme weather events including drought, flooding, and locusts in the past years have also contributed to food insecurity in the country, particularly among the poorest populations.

In order to gather on-the-ground feedback from Pakistanis on their feelings towards the US troop removal from Afghanistan, foreign influencers, and how COVID-19 has impacted their lives in the past year, GeoPoll conducted a study via SMS in Pakistan with 408 respondents, the majority of whom were located in the Punjab region. The study was conducted in January 2021. While this study was not nationally representative, it provides some high-level insights into the views of Pakistanis and how they are looking to the future. Read a summary of results below or jump to the dashboard with full results.

Pakistan and the Great Power Competition

There are several factors that make Pakistan a geopolitically significant country, and as such foreign powers including the United States, China, and Russia have an interest in Pakistan. GeoPoll’s study asked several questions regarding foreign influences on Pakistan, and the responses demonstrate how different countries are influencing different aspects of Pakistan. Economically, China was the clear largest influencer, cited by 49% as the biggest influencer of Pakistan’s economy, likely related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, an infrastructure initiative.

Respondents were more split on the largest influence on Pakistan’s military and politics, with 33% stating that China has the largest influence on Pakistan’s military, 20% stating the United States, and 21% stating India. Politically, the United States and India are cited as the largest influences, at 32% each.

Culturally, 50% of respondents stated that India was the largest influence on Pakistan’s culture, with other countries including the United States, China, and Afghanistan having under 15% of responses each. Russia was not listed as a significant influence in any question, though more respondents felt Russia influences Pakistan’s military (7%) than any other category. Afghanistan’s biggest perceived influence was in Pakistan’s culture.

Pakistan’s Views on US Troop Withdrawal

 Respondents were somewhat split on the United States’ recent announcement that they would withdraw troops from Afghanistan, with the largest group (43%) stating that they ‘strongly agree’ with the decision, while 33% strongly disagree with the decision. Although relatively small sample sizes, the oldest age group were most likely to state that they strongly disagree with the troop withdrawal, with 50% of those aged 35 and older strongly disagreeing with the removal. Females were also slightly more likely to disagree with the US troop withdrawal than males.

COVID-19 and Pakistan  

COVID-19 has had economic and social impacts on huge portions of the population in most countries, and Pakistan is no exception. In line with our findings from other studies, GeoPoll found that 41% in Pakistan stated that finances were their biggest challenge due to COVID-19, and 44% state that their income has decreased a lot compared to before COVID-19, with an additional 26% stating their income has decreased a little. Despite this, respondents expressed hope for the future, with 56% stating that they believe Pakistan’s economy will get better in the next year, and 55% believing that their personal finances will get better in the next year.

Additionally, a majority of respondents stated that they would get the COVID-19 vaccine once it is available to them, with 41% stating they will ‘definitely’ get the vaccine as soon as possible, and 25% stating they would ‘probably’ get the vaccine as soon as possible. The biggest concern surrounding the vaccine was the ability for everyone to get the vaccine, at 28%, followed by vaccine safety, at 21%.

Conduct Research in Pakistan 

This study provides some high-level insights into several topics of interest in Pakistan. GeoPoll can conduct research in Pakistan via 2-way SMS surveys, Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) voice calls, web links, and in-person research methods. To learn more about our capabilities in Pakistan, please contact us.

The post Pakistan Study on COVID-19, US Troop Withdrawal appeared first on GeoPoll.

GeoPoll recently ran a survey in Pakistan to gather information on citizen’s perceptions of climate change, conflict in the region, female empowerment, social media usage and other key topics of interest in the country. GeoPoll gathered 379 completed surveys via SMS from across the country in order to answer questions on these topics and is pleased to share the results here. Read the summary below or jump to the full, interactive dashboard of results.

Climate Change in Pakistan

Climate change is a topic of increasing concern in Pakistan, which has suffered from an increase in floods and drought in the past years and is counted as one of the top 10 countries most affected by climate change. When asked about their level of concern over the effects of climate change in Pakistan, the largest portion of respondents, 37%, rated their concern level at 10, the highest level. Interestingly the next highest portion of respondents listed their concern at a 1, for “not at all concerned” indicating there may be differences in awareness over climate change depending on region, education level, and other factors which could be further explored through future research.

GeoPoll also asked about perceived causes and effects of climate change and found that 31% thought cutting down trees was a cause of climate change, and 22% mentioned the increasing population as a cause. An increase in temperature was the top selected consequence of climate change, with 29% of respondents selecting increased temperatures, followed closely by increased storms and floods, which 21% mentioned.

As flooding has been one of the most visible consequences of climate change in Pakistan, we asked several questions on respondents’ ability to recover if they were to experience extreme flooding. In terms of recovery following flooding, 39% think it is somewhat likely their household could recover fully within 6 months if they experienced extreme flooding, and 33% thought it was not likely at all that their household would recover in that timeframe. Local government was listed as the most popular source of help in the event of flooding, followed by the military and religious groups.

Community Improvements and Pakistan’s Economy

 Respondents were asked several questions about their communities and the economic growth in Pakistan. In term of community improvements, education was selected as the service most in need of improvement, with 37% of responses, followed by water with 23% of responses. Responses were quite split on economic growth, with 32% saying the level of economic growth in Pakistan is high, and 29% saying there has been no growth at all. Approximately 61% listed growth on the lower end of the scale, between 1-5 out of 10.

Despite the majority of respondents believing there has been low growth in the economy, 39% are cautiously optimistic about the country’s economic state, and an additional 27% who are very optimistic, and 20% who say they are not optimistic at all about the economy.

Empowering Women in Pakistan

Female empowerment is an important topic in Pakistan, which has traditionally been a male-dominated society. Increasing access to education is one way that development organizations hope to improve women’s opportunities in the country, and 45% of our male survey respondents agreed that improving access to education was the most important way to empower women. Interestingly, among females themselves, answers are more split, with 28% saying education, 23% increase in civic participation, and 23% stating a reduction in gender violence is the most important factor in empowering women. This demonstrates that while men generally believe education is the most critical factor in improving women’s opportunities, women themselves are equally focused on other issues they face.

When asked about barriers to women’s education specifically, male respondents were undecided on the biggest issue, with distance to school, family, money, and religious views all gathering over 20% of responses. Female respondents leaned slightly towards family being the largest barrier, at 28%, followed by distance to school at 26%.

News Sources and Social Media Usage in Pakistan 

Pakistan has a diverse media landscape that is classified “partly free” by Freedom House, with more journalists being threatened in the past decade than in earlier years. Internet penetration in the country remains quite low, and social media usage is estimated at around 18% of the population. GeoPoll found that 44% of those surveyed rated their social media usage at the lowest level, with just 19% saying classifying their usage of social media as “high”. Facebook is the most used social media channel, with 49% saying they use Facebook, compared to 14% using the next highest-used channel, YouTube. Newspapers remain the most popular overall source of information, followed by TV and Radio, demonstrating the dominance of traditional news outlets in the country.

The post Survey Results: Climate Change and Empowering Women in Pakistan appeared first on GeoPoll.