Claim: According to a survey conducted by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), half of all Pakistanis will leave Pakistan if they have a chance
Fact: PIDE’s November 2022 survey states that 37% of people answered yes to the question, “Would you leave Pakistan if given the chance?”
On 14 December 2022, an Instagram page called The Pakistan Frontier published an image with the following text: “Half Of Pakistanis Will Leave Pakistan If They Have A Chance. Survey Report.” The caption also included the information that the survey results were sourced from the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check looked at the official report published by the PIDE on their website. The report explicitly states that to gauge people’s desire to leave the country, the PIDE BASICS Survey asked if people would leave the country if given the chance to this question, 37% of the participants replied with a “YES”.
The survey then further categorizes the answers according to education levels, age, sex, territory, province, region, and the other reasons why participants said they would want to leave the country, if given the chance. The survey was conducted in 4 provinces and 3 territories.
The survey notes that slightly more urban Pakistanis (40%) want to leave than rural Pakistanis (36%). It also points out that males aged 15 to 24 have the highest desire to leave (62%). 44% of all people who expressed the desire to leave the country stated the reason to be that they feel they will get more respect as individuals abroad.
20,548 individuals were selected to participate, from the ages of 15 and above in 140 different districts.
Virality
Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis for the 8-day period from 14 December 2022 to 21 December 2022 using the following search terms:
- “Pakistanis” “leaving” “half”
We found a post on Instagram here, We also found similar tweets here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: According to PIDE’s recent survey, not half but 37% of Pakistanis said they would leave the country if given a chance.