Is Pakistan Facing the Worst Ever Brain Drain?

More than 1.2 million young people have left Pakistan for a better future

Image: Wego Travel Blog

It seems like that the only objective driving the lives of Pakistani youth is going abroad in search of better opportunities.

According to the official data, more than 400,000 highly qualified young Pakistanis have left the country during the tenure of current government.

The data also revealed that in the last five years, more than 2.75 million people have gone to other countries to earn a living. Experts suggest that the worst economic crisis, unemployment and inflation are the major reasons behind this brain drain.

According to the official data, 400,000 people went overseas in the first six months of this year while 832,000 went abroad.

The people who left Pakistan for a better future also included highly trained and highly qualified individuals.

In the last one year, 11,000 engineers, 11,000 accountants, 34,000 technicians, 4,000 doctors, and 37,500 managers have left Pakistan.

In addition to this, 1,560 teachers, 4,000 nurses, 13,445 computer typists, 29,000 electricians, 15,000 computer operators, 8,000 agricultural experts, 1,600 draftsmen anz 24,000 supervisors have also went abroad.

Amongst these, many Pakistanis went to the Middle East including 229,000 to the United Arab Emirates, 111,000 to Oman, 90,000 to Qatar and 700,000 to Saudi Arabia.

Additionally 8,000 Pakistanis left for the UK,1,300 for the US, 3000 for Greece, 6,000 for Romania and 20,000 for Malaysia.

According to previous data, more than 382,000 people went abroad in 2018 then in 2019, this number rose to 625,000. In 2020, 225,000 people left and then in 2021, 288,000 highly trained and highly qualified went overseas for better career opportunities. However, this year, more than 1.2 million young people have left Pakistan.