According to the latest edition of the trivia book Top 10 of Everything 2011 by Russell Ash, Pakistan has the 10th highest newspaper circulation in the world!
We may not think of ourselves as newspaper reading people, but seems like newspapers do sell!
There are several interesting records in the book, but the one that caught my attention was the top 10 list of countries with the highest circulation of newspapers. I’ve always heard that newspaper circulation has been pathetic in Pakistan but the numbers quoted in this book and taken from surveys of UNESCO put Pakistan at number 10 in the world in terms of the highest circulation of newspapers.
Following is the list of Top 10 countries with highest newspaper circulation. The numbers written infront of country names
give the average daily circulation of newspapers in these countries according to the cited UNESCO numbers.
1. China – 96, 704,000
2. India – 79,243,139
3. Japan – 70,446,000
4. USA – 57,357,000
5. Germany – 22,100,000
6. UK – 17,375,000
7. Russia – 13,280,000
8. France – 9,890,365
9. Italy – 8,017,000
10. Pakistan – 7,817,958
Umair’s calculation is pretty close but interpretation is incorrect. You see, a household having 4 or 5 family members will buy only one news paper for the whole family so the number of newspaper readers will be much more than (in multiples of) newspaper circulation. Nonetheless, following is a list of 10 countries mentioned in the post in the order of circulation-as-a-percentage-of-population.
1. Japan – 55.3%
2. UK – 28.02%
3. Germany – 27.02%
4. USA – 18.45%
5. France – 15.11%
6. Italy – 13.26%
7. Russia – 9.36%
8. China – 7.21%
9. India – 6.65%
10. Pakistan – 4.57%
As per 2009 UNDP report, India has 66% literacy rate while Pakistan is lagging behind with 54.2% and both are ranked 149th and 163rd respectively in a list of 180 countries. This low ranking may be the major factor contributing to low ratio of newspaper to population.
Another interesting fact is that India holds the record for most widely circulated English daily. The Times of India has a circulation of 4.2 million, while The Sun of UK (a tabloid) sells less than 3 million copies.
Why did the POST end circulation? It was the only or loudest dissenting voice in Pakistan against US interference. Thus, maybe the POST was forced to close.
take this. only 6.75 % of Indians and 4.2% Pakistanis read news papers ! i took India’s population as 1173108000 (2010 est) and Pakistan 185000000
a lil maths will help here. we need to compare it with the population
Well; We’ll always be a surprising Nation…Not far we’ll surprise Positively enough to be greeted.