Demographics of Bangladesh

Demographics of Bangladesh

This article is about the demographic features of the population of Bangladesh, including population density, ethnicity, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

Demographics of Bangladesh

Watching you (Bangladesh)

Population:   156,050,883 (July 2009 est.)[1]

Growth rate: 1.292% (2009 est.)

Birth rate:   24.68 births/1,000

population (2009 est.)

Death rate:   8 deaths/1,000

population (2009 est.)

Life expectancy:   60.25 years

–male:    57.57 years

–female: 63.03 years (2009 est.)

Fertility rate:    2.74 children born/woman (2009 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 59.02 deaths/1,000 live births

Age structure:

0-14 years:   34.6% (male 24,957,997/female 23,533,894)

15-64 years: 61.4% (male 47,862,774/female 45,917,674)

65-over: 4% (male 2,731,578/female 2,361,435) (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:

At birth:     1.04 male(s)/female (2009 est.)

Under 15:     1.01 male(s)/female

15-64 years: 0.9 male(s)/female

65-over: 0.94 male(s)/female

Nationality:

Nationality: noun: Bengali(s) adjective: Bangladeshi

Major ethnic: Bengali

Minor ethnic: Santhal, Chakma, Garo, Bihari, Oraon, Munda, Rohingya

Language:

Official:     Bengali

Spoken:   Bengali, Tribal languages and English

Bangladesh is ethnically homogeneous. Indeed, its name derives from the Bengali ethno-linguistic group, which comprises 98% of the population. Bengalis, who also predominate in the West Bengal province of India, are one of the most populous ethnic groups in the world. Variations in Bengali culture and language do exist of course. There are many dialects of Bengali spoken throughout the region. The dialect spoken by those in Chittagong and Sylhet are particularly distinctive. In 2009 the population was estimated at 156 million. Religiously, about 90% of Bangladeshis are Muslims and the remainder are mostly Hindus.

Bangladesh has the highest population density in the world, excluding a handful of city-states and small countries such as Malta.

Most of the demographic statistics below are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.

Contents

    * 1 Population

          o 1.1 Collection of sources

    * 2 Genetics

    * 3 Age

    * 4 Population growth rate

    * 5 Urban and rural

    * 6 Gender ratio

    * 7 Health

          o 7.1 Infant mortality rate

          o 7.2 Life expectancy at birth

          o 7.3 HIV/AIDS

          o 7.4 Major infectious diseases

    * 8 Ethnic groups

    * 9 Religion

    * 10 Language

    * 11 Education

   

Population

The mid-2009 estimate for total population was 156,050,883 which ranks Bangladesh 7th in the world (CIA).

  Collection of sources

Naturally there is some uncertainty about the population, especially in a developing country such as Bangladesh with high illiteracy and a large rural population. For instance, in 2005 there was not a consensus whether Bangladesh or Russia had a larger population. The UN's ESA ranked Russia 7th in the world and Bangladesh 8th. However, the CIA World Factbook ranked Bangladesh 7th and Russia 8th in the same year. The point is now moot as the population of Russia is in decline while that of Bangladesh is growing.

The following table lists various recent estimates of the population. The baseline for population studies on Bangladesh is the official census which is conducted every 10 years, the last being in 2001.

Source      Year Population (millions)

National Census[2]      1991 112

National Census[2]      2001 129

UN Population Fund[3]   2003 150

UN Dept Economic and Social Affairs[4]    2005 142

US State Dept[5] 2005 144

Population Reference Bureau[6]      2005 144

CIA World FactBook[7]   2006 147

UN Population Fund[8]   2006 144

CIA World FactBook[9]   2007 150

UN[10]      2007 159

World Bank[11]    2008 160

CIA World FactBook[12] 2010 156

World Population Reference[13]      2010 164

Genetics

Bangladesh has the world's highest frequency of the M form of mitochondrial DNA. This genetic variant spans many continents, and is the single most common mtDNA haplogroup in Asia.[14] In Bangladesh it represents about 83% of maternal lineages.[15]

Age

Age structure:

    0–14 years: 32.9% (male 24,957,997/female 23,533,894)

    15–64 years: 63.6% (male 47,862,774/female 45,917,674)

    65 years and over: 3.5% (male 2,731,578/female 2,361,435) (2006 est..)

Median age: 23.3 years

    Male: 22.9 years

    Female: 23.5 (2009 est.)

Population growth rate

Bangladesh had one of the highest rates of population growth in the world in the 1960s and 1970s. Since then however it has seen a marked reduction in its total fertility rate. Over a period of three decades it dropped from 6.2 to 3.2, according to UNDP figures from 2003.

Demographic evolution of the territory of Bangladesh (1900-2010).

    Pop. growth rate:1.292% (2009 est.)

    country comparison to the world: 104

    Birth rate:24.68 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)

    country comparison to the world: 71

    Death rate:8 deaths/1,000 population (2009 est.)

    country comparison to the world: 82

    Net migration rate:-2.53 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.)

    country comparison to the world: 145

    Total fertility rate:2.74 children born/woman (2009 est.)

    country comparison to the world: 82

Urban and rural

The sprawling mega-city of Dhaka has a huge population, but the majority of the people nonetheless still live in villages in rural areas.

    Urban population: 27% of total population (2009 est.)

    Rate of urbanization: 3.5% annual rate of change (2005-2010 est.)

Gender ratio

    At birth: 1.04 male(s)/female

    Under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female

    15–64 years: 0.9 male(s)/female

    65 years and over: 0.94 male(s)/female

    Total population: 0.93 male(s)/female (2009 est.)

Health

  Infant mortality rate

    Total: 59.02 deaths/1,000 live births

    country comparison to the world: 39

    Male: 66.12 deaths/1,000 live births

    Female: 51.64 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)

  Life expectancy at birth

    Total population: 60.25 years

    country comparison to the world: 183

    Male: 57.57 years

    Female: 63.03 years (2009 est.)

   HIV/AIDS

    Adult prevalence rate: less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

    county comparison to the world: 102

    People living with HIV/AIDS: 12,000 (2007 est.)

    county comparison to the world: 85

    Deaths: fewer than 500 (2007 est.)

    country comparison to the world: 8s

   

    Major infectious diseases

    Degree of risk: high

    Food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever

    Vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria are high risks in some locations

    Water contact disease: leptospirosis

    Animal contact disease: rabies (2005)

Ethnic groups

    See also:Ethnic groups in Bangladesh

The vast majority (about 98%) of Bangladeshis, as the nation's name would imply, hail from the Bengali ethno-linguistic group. This group also spans the neighboring Indian province of West Bengal. Minority ethnic groups include Meitei, Khasi, Santhals, Chakma, Garo (tribe), Biharis, Oraons, Mundas and Rohingyas.

Biharis are Urdu-speaking, non-Bengalis who emigrated from the state of Bihar and other parts of northern India during the 1947 partition. They are concentrated in the Dhaka and Rangpur areas and number some 300,000.[citation needed] In the 1971 independence war many of them sided with Pakistan, as they stood to lose their positions in the upper levels of society.[16] Hundreds of thousands went to Pakistan and those that remained were interned in refugee camps. Their population declined from about 1 million in 1971 to 600,000 in the late 1980s.[16] Refugees International has called them a "neglected and stateless" people as they are denied citizenship by the governments of Bangladesh and Pakistan.[17] As nearly 40 years has passed, two generations of Biharis have been born in the these camps. Biharis were granted Bangladeshi citizenhip and voting rights in 2008.[18]

Bangladesh's tribal population was enumerated at 897,828 in the 1981 census.[16] These tribes are concentrated in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and around Mymensingh, Sylhet, and Rajshahi. They are of Sino-Tibetan descent and differ markedly in their social customs, religion, language and level of development. The speak Tibeto-Burman languages and most are Buddhist or Hindu.[16] The four largest tribes are Chakmas, Marmas, Tipperas and Mros. Smaller groups include the Santals in Rajshahi and Dinajpur, and Khasis, Garos, and Khajons in Mymensingh and Sylhet regions.[16]

There are small communities of Meitei people in the Sylhet district, which is close to the Meitei homeland across the border in Manipur, India.

There is a small population of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar near the border in the southeast. There are 28,000 living in two UN refugee camps in Cox's Bazaar as well as some 200,000 "unregistered people of concern" living outside of the camps.[19] The refugee crisis originated in the early 1990s when the first wave numbering some 250,000 of the predominantly Muslim ethnic group fled persecution from their home in Rakhaine—Myanmar's western-most state. Bangladesh seeks to repatriate the refugees back to Myanmar.[20]

Religion

    See also: Islam in Bangladesh, Hinduism in Bangladesh, Buddhism in Bangladesh, Christianity in Bangladesh

The largest religion of Bangladesh is Islam where according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics 89.7% are Muslims, 9.2% are Hindus and the remaining include Buddhism, Christianity and others.

According the 2001 Census, the largest religion in Bangladesh was Islam with over 130 million Muslims at a percentage of nearly 90%, making it the majority religion in the country, the second largest was Hinduism with nearly 9% followed by others, which includes Buddhists, Christians and Animists. The majority of the Muslims are Sunni consisting of 95% of the Muslim population, and the remaining are Shi'a and other sects.

Hindus constitute 9.2% of the population. In 1961, they were 18.5% of the population, but their population declined significantly during the Bangladesh Liberation War due to the 1971 Bangladesh atrocities carried out by the Pakistan Army. As a result, millions of Hindus fled to India and their population in Bangladesh fell to 13.5% by 1974. Since then, the Hindu population has not grown as much as the Muslim population.

Language

    * Official language: Bengali (also known as Bangla)

    * Dialects: Chittagonian and Sylheti (both also regarded as languages in their own right)

    * Tribal languages: Khasi-Jainta, Bishnupriya Manipuri, Arakanese, Chakma, Garo, Ho, Kokborok and Kurukh

    * Other languages: English (spoken and known widely in upper-class & politics), Arabic ( sometimes spoken and known by many Muslims, due to Islam being the primary religion), Urdu (understood by some, and spoken by Biharis)'

Education

Literacy

    Definition: age 15 and over can read and write

    Total population: 43.1%

    Male: 53.9%

    Female: 31.8% (2003 est.)

Education expenditures

    2.7% of GDP (2005)

    country comparison to the world: 151

poor people life

No food, no clothes, no home. The poor who have lost everything

After crossing high above mangrove forests, rivers and dusky swamps, the Russian-made MI17 swoops down towards the town of Jhalokati, drawing people running out of their homes towards the emergency landing pad in the local football stadium.

Word had got out that a new consignment of food, water and clothes was on its way to the hard-hit region.

Some were curious. Many others were desperate for the provisions sent by the World Food Programme (WFP) and paid for by international donors.

Police and soldiers kept the crowd at a distance as the chopper touched down and the 2.4 tonnes of high-energy biscuits and other aid was unloaded in less than 20 minutes.

Onlookers were patient but hungry. It has been a week since Cyclone Sidr struck and for some this is only the second time they have had outside help.

"We have no food, no clothes, no home. We have lost everything," said Henara Begom as her two-year-old son cried in her arms in a crush by the gate. "There are five people in my family. We haven't eaten for two days. We want to be strong so that we can rebuild our lives. But now we need help."

There are only 10 minutes before the chopper leaves. It must return to its base in the capital, Dhaka, before sunset as it is dangerous to land in the dark. But a man takes visitors outside the stadium to show the damage done to the community. As is the case throughout south-western Bangladesh, it is the poorest of the poor who are worst hit. Masonry "pukka" houses by the roads are relatively unscathed. But the families living in bamboo shacks at the edge of the river have suffered serious losses. At least 45 people have died here. Many others have lost their homes.

Submerged

At a rickshaw driver's shack the corrugated iron roof panels were torn off like strips of tinfoil. "The waters rose up and submerged our home," said the resident, as she stared up at the sky from what used to be her bedroom. "We need shelter more than anything."

It is becoming an urgent but familiar appeal after what was already one of the world's poorest nations was ravaged last Thursday by a cyclone that killed more than 3,100 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless and almost two million destitute.

Jhalokati is by no means the worst-affected region. More than 30km (19 miles) from the coast, it suffered less than the poor fishing villages and shrimp farms living on the sand bar islands closer to the Bay of Bengal.

International aid agencies say shelter is the biggest short-term priority, although clean water and medicine are also desperately needed to prevent a spread of waterborne diseases.

Tales of hardship fill the local media. "We don't have anything left. Everyone here, both the rich and the poor, has become a beggar," said Abul Kashem Hoalader, a politician from South Khali.

The Daily Star related the tale of a man who had been searching for his wife since he was knocked unconscious while holding her hand in the storm.

"I just found her body under the hyacinths in the canal," he said. "People are now tired of burying bodies and they are busy collecting whatever relief is available so I am not getting anyone to help me recover her body."

Relief workers described traumatic scenes as they visited areas that have previously been inaccessible.

"They are burying four or five people in a single grave. Homes are completely flattened, roads blocked and trees torn up," said Mokit Billah of Action Aid, who has just returned from the edge of the Sundarban, one of the worst-affected areas. "Yesterday I saw the body of a six- or seven-year-old child. A woman was running back and forth, crying, looking for her husband. There are so many poor and hungry people. So many dead bodies. I was crying. I have never seen anything like it in my life. The old people described it as the apocalypse."

There are stories too of heroism, tragedy and hope. In Kanainagar village a fisherman's wife - Shathi Sarkan - gave birth in a cyclone shelter as the winds howled around her. According to the Prothom Alo newspaper, locals have named her baby boy Sidr after the storm that they say brought something good among so much devastation.

A grimmer tale is told by the International Federation of the Red Cross, which mobilised 30,000 volunteers to spread advance warning about the cyclone with drums and loudspeakers, as well as dealing with its consequences.

One team leader, Anwar Hossain, reportedly spent hours warning residents in Patuakhali district to evacuate to shelters. But he was so busy helping others that when he returned to his own home he found his parents had been washed away by the tidal surge. His mother's body was later recovered.

The federation predicated 10,000 deaths, but they are now moving closer to the government's much lower estimate. It says, however, that the toll cannot just be measured in fatalities.

"It is not just about casualties and headcounts," said Devendra Tak, senior regional officer of the federation. "Half a million cattle have perished. There has been a huge effect on livelihoods. This is truly a disaster of large proportions."

Other aid groups, including Unicef, are working on the psychological damage to children.

Traumatised

"Some saw their relatives killed by trees that fell on their homes, or they saw dead bodies - something many of them had never seen before," Raphael Palma, of World Vision, told Associated Press. "They are still somehow traumatised and need support."

In the longer term the biggest need is for food, as some areas have suffered damage to 95% of their crops, many fishermen have lost their boats and the shrimp farms that are an important source of revenue in the worst-affected coastal region have been devastated.

The WFP is asking for almost $30m (£15m) over the next three months to feed 2.2 million people. It would be a doubling of their existing operation in a country where a third of the 150m population subsist below the poverty line. Foreign governments have already pledged $200m. Saudi Arabia has led the donors, but India, Pakistan, Britain and other EU nations had offered large contributions. Two US navy vessels, the Essex and Kearsarge, each carrying 20 or more helicopters, will join the relief effort at the weekend.

It is much needed. According to reports aid is still not reaching most victims and there are fears that the increase in weak people drinking polluted water could lead to more casualties. Yesterday there were at least two reports of people dying from diarrhoea.

But it could be far worse. During the last major cyclone, in 1990, 143,000 people died. A similarly powerful storm killed half a million in 1970. The gradually declining toll is attributed to shelters, better warning systems, improved international aid and luck - this year's killer cyclone could have been much worse if it had struck at high tide in a crowded area rather than in low tide with impact diluted by the natural tree barrier provided by the Sundarbans.

A quarter of the Sundarbans, the world's biggest mangrove forest, was wiped out after suffering the full fury of the cyclone. The area has been designated by the UN as a world heritage site. The carcasses of about a dozen deer have been found, but conservationists said they were hopeful that the rare royal bengal tiger had survived.

After the misery and destruction of last week the mood is shifting towards hope and reconstruction.

The Bangladeshi Air Force pilot, who asked to remain nameless, said the situation on the ground was better than when he had first started relief missions in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Roads are being cleared so it should soon be possible to supply food in larger quantities by truck. "I am glad to help," he said. "They have lost everything."

daily life

BANGLADESH - DAILY LIFE  

The river is the heart of liveAs most of the houses have no running water in rural areas, a major part of life centers around the river. People wash themselves as well as their clothes in the river or the pond. From the car, you see sometimes women, completely covered in a sari, get into the water, and then suddenly you see a head and a floating sari.

The wash is done in the river and, as can be seen from the picture, is left out to dry on the side. Many people get their water from pump, but they are often not close to the house and as washing takes a lot of water, it is much easier to carry your clothes to the water than to carry many buckets of water towards your clothes.

The river is also a source of fun. Many children, mostly boys, and sometimes men, are swimming as soon as the school or working day is over.Small lights in shops alongside the road

When driving from village to village along the small roads, you see many little shops on the left and right side. At night this is especially nice, as they all have a small lamp or candle shining, and men are always gathering around it, having their social time.

The goods you can buy are unfortunately not so attractive, being mainly sweets and crisps, many of them well beyond due date, but the little lights certainly add to the atmosphere.

When the harsh ninth month of Ramadan has arrived, the sunny days consist of one long gloomy waiting period: for Iftar to come. The whole day eating is not allowed, and for an unclear reason (at least unclear to me) the favorite food after a day of fasting is deep-fried and most of it is sweet. Also puffed rice is very popular. From 5 o'clock, the streets are getting empty, everybody is running towards the little stalls where the Iftar food is exhibited, to buy big bags with different kinds of greasy food, only to mix them before eating afterwards. I love to get invited to the Iftar parties, but after a week or so, I also crave for fresh fruit and green leafy vegetables.