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
