Town Planning & Urban Management drew 835 candidates in CSS 2025 and allocated 10 of them, an overall conversion of 1.2%. The paper is a solid one to score in, with a mean of 49% well above the passing line, so the filtering that thins the field is a matter of overall merit rather than the difficulty of the exam. Candidates clear this subject and then compete on their full scorecard for a modest number of seats.
The distribution here is unusual, with Balochistan taking 4 of the 10 seats, ahead of KPK and Punjab on 2 each and Azad Kashmir and Sindh Rural sharing the rest. The strong Balochistan showing breaks the usual Punjab dominance and makes this one of the more geographically distinctive subjects in the examination.
The 10 seats split evenly, with 5 going to women and 5 to men, a 50% female share that matches the CSS-wide rate almost exactly. With ten seats the parity is illustrative rather than conclusive, but it points to even conversion between men and women in this subject.
Town Planning & Urban Management's mean of 49% sits 5.5 points above the CSS optional-subject average of 43.5%, marking it as an above-average paper to score in. The favourable mean, combined with a good conversion of written passers and an unusually broad geographic spread, makes it a reasonably accessible specialist choice. With 10 seats, a strong score rather than a bare pass is what secures allocation.
Of the 835 who appeared, 17 passed the written stage and 10 of those were allocated. With a mean of 49% sitting well above the 33% threshold, the subject is not the bottleneck; candidates clear it readily and then lose around 40% of their number at the merit cut. The good conversion of written passers into seats makes this a reasonably rewarding specialist subject for those who clear the paper.
The mean of 49% clears the passing line by 16 points, and with the median higher at 53% the distribution leans to the left, carried by a body of strong scripts. A standard deviation of 17 points places a candidate one deviation below the mean at 32%, just under the threshold, which marks this as a moderate-risk paper. The average candidate passes comfortably, but a weaker showing can slip below the line, so consistent preparation matters. The high mean indicates a scoreable paper for the well-prepared. The four-point gap between median and mean reflects a left skew, where a minority of low scripts drags the average beneath the centre of the distribution, so the typical candidate scores closer to 53% than the 49% mean.
Town Planning & Urban Management is a sound choice for candidates with a genuine grasp of urban planning and management who can write analytically under exam conditions. Its above-average paper, good conversion and notably broad geographic spread, including a strong Balochistan showing, make it one of the more distinctive specialist options. As ever, the limited seats reward strong scores over mere passes.