| Independently reported | |
| Pakistani medical tourists to India (2017) | 1,785, down from 3,632 in 2015[1] |
|---|---|
| India’s total over the same period | Rose from 233,918 in 2015 to 495,056 in 2017[1] |
| Pakistan’s share of India’s total (2017) | Under 0.4 per cent[1] |
| Pakistan in India’s 2019 to 2024 visa data | Not mentioned, including in the top twenty source countries[2] |
| Pakistani count of inbound or outbound patients | No figure located in any source[1] |
| Regional leaders for context | Thailand about 1 million visitors a year, India 500,000, Singapore 350,000[4] |
| This entry has no primary-record band. No Pakistani government source on medical travel in either direction was located. The Indian figures are reported through trade and data journalism rather than read in an Indian government publication, and the explanation for the decline is not given by either source. No typical cost range is given. | |
Medical tourism in Pakistan is documented in the accessible record almost entirely by what did not happen. Between 2015 and 2017 the number of medical tourists travelling to India more than doubled, from 233,918 to 495,056. Over the same period Pakistani arrivals halved, from 3,632 to 1,785. By the 2019 to 2024 visa data Pakistan does not appear at all.
The divergence
An analysis of Indian Bureau of Immigration and Ministry of Tourism figures recorded total medical tourists to India of 233,918 in 2015, 427,014 in 2016 and 495,056 in 2017. Within that total, Pakistan fell from 3,632 in 2015 to 1,785 in 2017, which left it below the Seychelles, the United Kingdom and the United States in some of the comparisons and at under 0.4 per cent of the Indian total.[1]
Bangladesh, by contrast, rose from 120,388 to 221,751 over the same three years and accounted for 55 per cent of India’s 2017 total. Afghanistan rose from 27,505 to 55,681. So the Pakistani decline is not a regional pattern: it is specific, and it runs against a general doubling.[1]
Indian medical visa data for 2019 to 2024, covering the series from a record 597,000 in 2023 to 464,000 in 2024 and naming the top twenty source countries that together accounted for about 95 per cent of visas, makes no mention of Pakistan.[2]
What the sources do not say
Neither source explains the decline, and this entry does not either. The obvious candidate explanation is the state of relations between the two countries over the period and the visa restrictions that accompany it, since medical travel between India and Pakistan depends on a bilateral visa regime that both governments have periodically tightened. That is not asserted here as a finding, because neither source attributes the fall to any cause.
What the Indian data does demonstrate, in a case where the cause is stated, is how fast a political decision moves these numbers. India’s overall medical visa total fell 22 per cent in 2024, attributed mainly to political unrest in Bangladesh, after India indefinitely closed its visa application centres there in August 2024 and issued visas only for medical and emergency purposes, with visas to Bangladeshi nationals falling 39 per cent. Afghanistan went from a significant share until 2021 to a single medical visa issued across 2022 to 2024, after India invalidated previously issued physical visas following the Taliban takeover.[2]
Those two documented cases establish the mechanism. Medical travel in South Asia is gated by visa policy, and when a government closes the gate the flow stops within a year regardless of clinical need. The Pakistani figures are consistent with that mechanism, which is why it is worth naming even though the sources do not apply it to Pakistan.
Pakistan as a destination
No figure for foreign patients treated in Pakistan was located in any source consulted. Pakistan has a large private hospital sector concentrated in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, substantial philanthropic hospital provision, and is a source of medical travel to the Gulf, Thailand and the United Kingdom as well as having been a source to India. None of that could be quantified, and none of it is asserted as a figure here.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists cosmetic surgery, dental care, cancer treatment, fertility treatment and organ transplantation as the procedures most often sought abroad, notes that some highly resistant bacteria and fungi appear more common in some countries where patients seek care, and states that accreditation does not guarantee a good outcome.[3]
A 2015 briefing by an economist in the United States International Trade Commission’s Office of Industries, published as the author’s own views and not the Commission’s, names the leading global providers as Thailand with about 1 million visitors a year, India with 500,000 and Singapore with 350,000, against a global estimate of roughly 3 million patients travelling for healthcare each year. Pakistan appears in none of its breakdowns.[4]
Limits of the evidence
No Pakistani ministry statistic, hospital capacity figure or accreditation register was located, and no Pakistani figure of any kind appears in this entry. The Indian figures reach it at second hand and cover only travel to India, which is one destination among several. The explanation for the Pakistani decline is identified as unexplained by the sources, and the visa mechanism is cited only from the two cases where a source states it. Nothing has been estimated.
See also
- Medical tourism in Bangladesh, which rose while Pakistan fell
- Medical travel for unavailable treatments, the need a closed border does not remove
- Source markets in medical tourism, and one that closed
- Medical tourism in Nepal, absent from the same data for the opposite reason
- Medical tourism statistics, and flows gated by visa policy
References
- International Medical Travel Journal. IMTJ analysis of 2017 India medical tourist data. Published 20 September 2018. Independently reported: the analysis was opened and its attribution to federal government figures from the Bureau of Immigration and Ministry of Tourism, the totals of 495,056 medical tourists in 2017, 427,014 in 2016 and 233,918 in 2015, the Pakistani figures of 3,632 in 2015 and 1,785 in 2017, the Bangladeshi figures of 120,388 in 2015, 210,142 in 2016 and 221,751 in 2017 representing 55 per cent of the total, the Afghan figures of 27,505 in 2015 and 55,681 in 2017, the other country figures for Iraq, the Maldives, Oman, Yemen, Uzbekistan, Nigeria, Kuwait, the Seychelles, the United Kingdom, the United States, France and Germany, and the caveat that previous Indian figures were based on medical visa numbers but not all medical tourists apply for medical visas were read directly. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- Factly. Data: Medical visas issued by India down more than 20% in 2024 on account of political unrest in Bangladesh. Independently reported: the article was opened and its attribution of medical visa numbers to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, the series from about 38,000 in 2012 to a record 597,000 in 2023 and 464,000 in 2024 representing a 22 per cent decline, the attribution of that decline mainly to political unrest in Bangladesh with India indefinitely closing its visa application centres there in August 2024 and issuing visas only for medical and emergency purposes, the 39 per cent fall in visas to Bangladeshi nationals in 2024, Bangladesh accounting for more than 70 per cent of medical visas in recent years and about 70 per cent in 2024, the Afghan position of a significant share until 2021 followed by only one medical visa issued from 2022 to 2024 after India invalidated previously issued physical visas following the Taliban takeover, the naming of the top twenty source countries for 2019 to 2024 as accounting for about 95 per cent of visas, and the absence of any mention of Pakistan were read directly. The article states no author or publication date. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- Stoney, R. J. and Leidel, L. Medical Tourism. CDC Yellow Book: Health Information for International Travel, 2026 edition, United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Page dated 23 April 2025. Independently reported: the chapter was opened and the listing of cosmetic surgery, dental care, cancer treatment, fertility treatment and organ transplantation as the procedures most often sought abroad, the note that highly resistant bacteria and fungi appear more common in some countries where patients seek care, and the statement that accreditation does not guarantee a good outcome were read directly. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- Chambers, A. Trends in U.S. Health Travel Services Trade. Office of Industries, United States International Trade Commission, Executive Briefing on Trade, August 2015. Independently reported: the briefing was opened and the identification of the leading global providers as Thailand with about 1 million visitors a year, India with 500,000 and Singapore with 350,000, the global estimate that roughly 3 million patients are thought to travel for healthcare each year, and the absence of Pakistan from its breakdowns were read directly. The briefing states that the views expressed are those of the author and not those of the Commission. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
Sourcing note: the entry states that neither source explains the Pakistani decline and does not supply a cause, while naming the visa mechanism from the two cases, Bangladesh in 2024 and Afghanistan after 2021, where a source does attribute a fall to a specific political decision. No Pakistani figure appears anywhere, because none was located. Nothing has been estimated.