The main objective of the series of District Profiles is to provide information on a wide range of sectors and subjects for each of the 26 districts in Balochistan. The result however creates the possibility to compare the districts among themselves and to compare the situation in each of them with the situation in Balochistan as a whole. To introduce this perspective, 32 indicators have been selected on which this comparison can take place. These indicators, and others, can be found on the following two pages. Each district can be ranked on each of the indicators. The relative position of Zhob district is reflected in the diagram on the third page. The diagram gives a bottom-up ranking: position nr.1 means the lowest score on that particular indicator, while position nr.26 implies the highest score.

An overall ranking of districts is not given, because that would mean attaching as certain weight to each of the indicators.

As far as Zhob district is concerned, the following observations can be made.

• With its 16,520 square kilometer, Zhob is about 3,000 square kilometer bigger than the average size of districts in Balochistan; the size of the area gives the district position nr.20, while the population (projected to be 344,122) puts it one position lower. The density of population is the same as the density for the whole of the province.

• The quantity of fruit production is comparatively high (fifth highest in the province), while the overall agricultural production puts the district in the middle category. The agricultural production value per hectare is the third highest, which might indicate a reasonably favourable productivity.

• Zhob district scores relatively high as far as the number of livestock units is concerned; it takes however a fairly low position in the ranking on pasture area and available pasture area per livestock unit. This would suggest that expansion of the livestock sector is only feasible through more intensive methods of production. The current value of livestock off-take per capita puts the district in the upper half of the ranking.

• The enrolment figures in primary education for both boys and girls belong to the middle category (position nr.13 and 10 respectively); while the pupils/teacher ratio is on the high side compared to the other districts (position nr.21 for boys and nr.17 for girls).

• All of the four health indicators fall in the middle category of rankings with the lowest score for the population per doctor ratio (position nr.9), although the number of population per bed is nearly twice the average in the province as a whole.

• Although exact figures on the coverage of water supply are not available, the impression is that also on this indicator the district takes a position in the middle.

• The density of metalled roads (length of road per square kilometer) is about 50% higher than the average in the province and gives Zhob district position nr.16. The situation with regard to shingle roads is less favourable: position nr.9 and a density which is 20% lower than the provincial average.

 Back to Zhob