A web-based survey, an urban survey and a rural survey collected responses from 906 Pakistani adults (> 18 years) to assess their knowledge, attitudes and sanitary practices for COVID-19. In this study, the mean age was 33.5 years and 51% of respondents were female. Web-based and urban survey respondents had 2-7 times greater knowledge and were 4-5 times more likely to use COVID-19 sanitary practices compared to the rural survey group. While two thirds of respondents expressed high levels of fear about COVID-19, this was highest among rural survey respondents compared to the other surveys. With regard to attitude, 90% of respondents had an unfavourable attitude in terms of COVID-19 transmission prevention strategies. The findings of this study indicate the need to educate different population groups about COVID-19 and COVID-19 prevention practices, in particular within the rural populations in Pakistan.