ISLAMABADcrashbandicootbundle, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's population and urbanization challenges are increasing, necessitating a new urbanization model, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in a report.

Pakistan's annual growth in urban population is nearly double that of the rural population, the ADB said in its recent report titled "Pakistan National Urban Assessmentcrashbandicootbundle: Pivoting toward Sustainable Urbanization."

Despite moderating in 2020 and 2021, the population growth averaged 2.55 percent annually from 2017 to 2023, the report said.

This brought Pakistan's total population in 2023 to 241.5 million (16.3 percent more than in 2017), with an urban population of 93.8 million (a nearly fourfold increase since 1981).

The pressure on cities, already burdened by escalating deficits in urban infrastructure and services, is expected to intensify. The urban population is projected to climb to 99.4 million, or 40.7 percent of the country's total, in 2030, said the report.

The ADB suggested that provincial governments must bridge the gap between local government acts and their implementation while emphasizing the need for forward-looking urban planning.■