POPULATION OF BANGLADESH
Even though it is only the size of Wisconsin or Nepal, Bangladesh is the eighth most populous nation in the world after China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Pakistan, Brazil and Nigeria. About 160 million to 170 million people liver there. There were 128,095,000 people in Bangladesh in 1995.
Population: 162,650,853 (July 2020 estimated); compared with other countries in the world: 8. South Asia — Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka — is home to about 25 percent of the world’s population. Almost half of Bangladesh’s population (48 percent) is under the age of 24. [Source: CIA World Factbook, 2020 =]
Even though Bangladesh is about the same size as New York state, it has a population about half that of the United States and eight times that of New York State. The population has more than doubled — almost tripled — since the 1960s, due to improved health, medical facilities, and longer life expectancy. At one time Bangladesh had one of the highest birth rates in Asia. [Source: “Worldmark Encyclopedia of National Economies”, The Gale Group Inc., 2002]
The population of Bangladesh in 2005 was around 144 million, it was ranked as the 7th most populous nation of the world. Its population was around 130 million in 2000, when it was the tenth-most populous state in the world. In 1970, the population of Bangladesh was about 66 million. The country's population doubled between 1950 and 1977 and almost doubled again between 1977 and 2001.
Population pressures in Bangladesh have led to deforestation, pollution, epidemics, vulnerability to cyclones and flooding, and persistant poverty. It also puts severe strains on natural resources and produces land shortages. The population of Bangladesh would probably be higher than Pakistan were it not for the periodic flood and storms that kill hundreds of thousands of people.
Age Structure of Bangladesh
The Bangladesh population is very young, with about a third of the population below age 14 and just 4 percent of the population older than 65. There are some discrepancies with the data as you can see below. In 2005, approximately 3 percent of the population was over 65 years and 35 percent was under 15 years of age. Median age: total: 27.9 years; male: 27.1 years; female: 28.6 years (2020 estimated); compared with other countries in the world: 143
Age structure of Bangladesh.
0-14 years: 26.48 percent (male 21,918,651/female 21,158,574)
15-24 years: 18.56 percent (male 15,186,470/female 15,001,950)
25-54 years: 40.72 percent (male 31,694,267/female 34,535,643)
55-64 years: 7.41 percent (male 5,941,825/female 6,115,856)
65 years and over: 6.82 percent (male 5,218,206/female 5,879,411) (2020 estimated)
[Source: CIA World Factbook, 2020 =]
Population 14 and under: 35 percent (compared to 40 percent in Kenya, 19 percent in the United States and 13 percent in Japan). [Source: World Bank data.worldbank.org ]
Population 65 and above: 4 percent (compared to 3 percent in Kenya, 15 percent in the United States and 27 percent in Japan). [Source: World Bank data.worldbank.org ]
Dependency ratios are a measure of the age structure of a population. They relate the number of individuals that are likely to be economically "dependent" on the support of others. Dependency ratios contrast the ratio of youths (ages 0-14) and the elderly (ages 65+) to the number of those in the working-age group (ages 15-64).
total dependency ratio: 47
youth dependency ratio: 39.3
elderly dependency ratio: 7.7
potential support ratio: 13 (2020 estimated) =
Population Density of Bangladesh
Bangladesh is the world's most densely populated large country, with 1,260 people per square kilometer (3,315 people per square mile), compared to 2 per square kilometer in Mongolia, 35 per square kilometer in the United States, and 527 in South Korea and compared to 5 per square mile in Mongolia, 94 in the United States, and 1,366 in South Korea).
Bangladesh has been described as world's most densely populated non-island country large country; the most densely populated agricultural country in the world and the most densely populated non-urban country in the world. Places like Bahrain — an island country — and Singapore — and urban, non-agriculture country — have higher population densities.
In 1995, the population density of Bangladesh was 836 people per square kilometers (2,236 people per square mile). This density was greater than if every person in the world was placed inside the 48 contiguous United States or everyone one in the United States was placed in Wisconsin. The density grew from 1865 people per square mile in 1991 to 2,269 people per square mile in 2001.
The world's most crowded countries or territories (people per square kilometer) in the 1990s were: 1) Macao (25,882); 2) Monaco (15,789); 3) Hong Kong (5,308); 4) Singapore (4,228); 5) Vatican City (2,500); 6) Bermuda (1,322); 7) Malta (1,076); 8) Bangladesh (824); 9) Bahrain (772); 10) Maldives (762).
The areas around the capital city, Dhaka, and around Comilla are the most densely settled. The Sundarbans, an area of coastal tropical jungle in the southwest, and the Chittagong Hill Tracts on the southeastern border with Myanmar and India are the least densely populated areas. [Source: “Cities of the World” , The Gale Group Inc. 2002]
Population Growth in Bangladesh
Population growth rate: 0.98 percent (2020 estimated); compared with other countries in the world: 106; Birth rate: 18.1 births per 1,000 population (2020 estimated); compared with other countries in the world: 88. [Source: CIA World Factbook, 2020]
The population of Bangladesh grew from 106 million in 1991 to 129 million in 2001. When the population growth rate was 1.6 percent the population was expected to rise to around 160 million by 2010 and 210 million by 2025 before stabilizing at around 250 million sometimes in middle of the 21st century.
According to the United Nations, the annual population rate of change for 2005–10 was expected to be 1.9 percent, a rate the government viewed as too high. In 2004–06, the government carried out a program aimed at reducing population growth. The projected population for the year 2025 was 190 million. These figures turned out to be high after the growth rate dropped below one percent. [Source: “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations”, Thomson Gale, 2007]
Fertility Rate in Bangladesh
Total fertility rate: 2.11 children born/woman (2020 estimated), compared to 1.5 in Germany and 7.2 in Niger. Compared with other countries in the world, Bangladesh ranks 98th. The fertility rate in Pakistan is 3.6 children per woman. The fertility rate us number of live births per 1,000 women of reproductive age (ages 15 to 49 years) per year.
At one time Bangladesh had one of the highest birth rates in Asia. Great strides have been made in family planning in recent decades and now the population is only growing at the rate of about one percent a year as women are having an average of two children, compared 6.8 per woman in 1965 to around 3 per woman in 1999. The average life expectancy 72.3 years, compared to 56 years in the 1990s.
The birthrate has dropped from 7.4 children per woman in 1975 to 4.9 children per woman in 1990, to 3.3 in 1998. In the 1990s, the Bangladesh government had a goal of reducing the birth rate to 1.8 percent.
Teenage pregancy rates are still high in Bangladesh. According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) Bangladesh has the highest adolescent pregnancy rate outside Sub-Saharan Africa. 113 out of 1000 teenage girls falls pregnant before the age of 19. The primary cause for adolescent pregnancy lies in the high rate of child marriage.
Reasons for High Birth Rates and Declining Birth Rates in Bangladesh
A U.S. health official in Bangladesh in the 1970s told William Ellis of National Geographic: "A man here wants children for economic reasons, or at least that's one important consideration...he wants his sons to grow up and provide for him in his old age. But there is only a fifty-fifty percent chance he will have a boy, and if he does, there is another fifty-fifty chance that the boy will not survive to adulthood. Therefore. to be reasonable sure of having two sons survive, he has to have about eight children." [Source: William Ellis, National Geographic, September 1972]
In the early 1980s the annual rate of population increase was above 2.5 percent, but in the late 1990s it decreased to 1.9 percent and to 1.6 percent in 2001. The decline was attributed to decreasing birth rates (decreasing faster than death rates), decreasing farm sizes, national birth control campaigns and increasing urbanization. The birth control efforts were largely funded by foreign NGOs. [Source: “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations”, Thomson Gale, 2007]
According to a World Bank study in the early 2000s, Bangladesh was the only one of the world’s 20 poorest nations to make significant advances in reducing population growth. The finding bucked the popular notion that significant population growth reductions can only be achieved by raising the standard of living and is impossible in places where rates of poverty, illiteracy are high and the status of women is low. .
Population Structure of Bangladesh in the 1980s
In the 1980s, Bangladesh faced no greater problem than population growth. Census data compiled in 1901 indicated a total of 29 million in East Bengal, the region that became East Pakistan and eventually Bangladesh. By 1951, four years after partition from India, East Pakistan had 44 million people, a number that grew rapidly up to the first postindependence census, taken in 1974, which reported the national population at 71 million. The 1981 census reported a population of 87 million and a 2.3 percent annual growth rate. Thus, in just 80 years, the population had tripled. In July 1988 the population, by then the eighth largest in the world, stood at 109,963,551, and the average annual growth rate was 2.6 percent. According to official estimates, Bangladesh was expected to reach a population of more than 140 million by the year 2000. [Source: James Heitzman and Robert Worden, Library of Congress, 1989 *]
Bangladesh's population density provided further evidence of the problems the nation faced. In 1901 an average of 216 persons inhabited one square kilometer. By 1951 that number had increased to 312 per square kilometer and, in 1988, reached 821. By the year 2000, population density was projected to exceed 1,000 persons per square kilometer.
The crude birth rate per 1,000 population was 34.6 in 1981. This rate remained unchanged in 1985, following a 20-year trend of decline since 1961, when it had stood at 47 per 1,000. The rural birth rate was higher than birth rates in urban areas; in 1985 there were 36.3 births per 1,000 in the countryside versus 28 per 1,000 in urban areas. The crude death rate per 1,000 population decreased from 40.7 in 1951 to 12 per 1,000 in 1985; the urban crude death rate was 8.3, and the rural crude death rate was 12.9. The infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births was 111.9 in 1985, a distinct improvement from as recently as 1982, when the rate was 121.9. Life expectancy at birth was estimated at 55.1 years in 1986. Men and women have very similar life expectancies at 55.4 and 55, respectively. With an average life expectancy of 58.8 years, urban dwellers in 1986 were likely to live longer than their rural counterparts (average life expectancy 54.8 years). The sex ratio of the population in 1981 was 106 males to 100 females.
Migration in Bangladesh
Net migration rate: -3 migrant(s) per 1,000 population (2020 estimated); compared with other countries in the world: 175. This figure is the difference between the number of persons entering and leaving a country during the year per 1,000 persons. An excess of persons leaving the country as net emigration is recorded with a minus number like that above. [Source: CIA World Factbook, 2020]
Population pressures and land degradation have forced tens of tens of thousands of environmental refugees to migrate from Burma to Bangladesh and Bangladesh to India. As of 2000, there were approximately 988,000 migrants living in Bangladesh. In 2003, there were 150,000 to 520,000 internally displaced persons within the country. As of 2004, there were about 5,500 refugees. The estimated net migration rate in 2005 was -0.69 per 1,000 population. [Source: Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations, Thomson Gale, 2007]
According to the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations”: “Since 1947 there has been a regular interchange of population between India and what is now Bangladesh, with Hindus migrating to India and Muslims emigrating from India. There was also substantial migration between Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) and West Pakistan until the 1971 war. Before and during the war, an estimated 8 to 10 million Bengalis fled to India; most of these refugees returned after the independence of Bangladesh was firmly established. [Source: “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations”, Thomson Gale, 2007]
Although Bangladesh has absorbed several waves of immigrants since the onset of the twentieth century, the overall trend has been a steady emigration of people driven out by political and economic problems. Following the partition of British India in 1947, more than 3 million Hindus may have migrated from East Pakistan; during the same period some 864,000 Muslim refugees immigrated to East Pakistan from India. The operation of the Pakistani military in East Pakistan in 1971 caused an estimated 8 to 10 million refugees to cross the border into India in one of the great mass movements of modern times. After the independence of Bangladesh, most of these refugees returned, although an undetermined number remained in India. After independence, Bangladesh received some 100,000 stranded Bangladeshis from former West Pakistan. About 600,000 non-Bengali Muslims, known as Biharis, who had declared their allegiance to Pakistan during the 1971 war, continued to reside in Bangladesh. [Source: James Heitzman and Robert Worden, Library of Congress, 1989 *]
Internal migration indicated several recognizable trends. Because of increasing population pressure, people in the 1980s were moving into areas of relatively light habitation in the Chittagong Hills and in parts of the Sundarbans previously considered marginally habitable. Agrarian distress caused some movement to urban areas, especially Dhaka. Because of the inhospitable urban environment and the lack of jobs, many newcomers returned at least temporarily to their villages, especially during the harvest season. Unemployment, however, was even higher in the countryside and was a long-term national problem in the mid-1980s.
Immigration to Bangladesh
According to the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations”: ““In 1993, repatriation began of an estimated 56,000 Chakma refugees from the Indian state of Tripura to the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. They had fled unrest in this area. As of May 1997, 47,000 Chakma refugees still lived in northeastern India. In 1991–92 about 265,000 Rohingyas — Muslims from Myanmar — fled to Bangladesh to escape repression. Beginning in 1994, over 200,000 of these refugees returned home to Myanmar (Burma). However, as of 1999, around 22,000 Myanmar refugees still resided in southern Bangladesh in two camps. The United Nations urged the governments of both Bangladesh and Myanmar to accelerate the process. In 2004 the refugee population numbered around 5,500. [Source: “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations”, Thomson Gale, 2007]
There are currently around 1 million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), more than 723,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since August 2017. The joined about 200,000 Rohingya already there.
In the 1960s, hard-line Gen. Ne Win expelled hundreds of thousands of Muslims whose families had come from India to work. Years later, he forced more than 200,000 Rohingya over the Bangladeshi border. As of the early 2010s there was up to 250,000 Rohingya living in southern Bangladesh, many of whom fled from Myanmar in the early 1990s complaining of abuses by the army.
Emigration from Bangladesh
According to the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations”: “Bangladeshi long-term migration to industrialized countries in the West began in the 1950s to the United Kingdom, and in the 1960s to the United States. Labor migration to the Middle East and Southeast Asia began in the 1970s on short-term bases. As of 2004, the preferred Middle Eastern countries for labor migration were Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait. The flow of remittances to Bangladesh has increased dramatically. In 1976, us$24 million entered the country through official channels, by the first nine months of 2004, this sum had increased to us$2.35 billion. However, Bangladeshis sought asylum in fourteen countries, mainly South Africa, Cyprus, and France in 2004. [Source: “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations”, Thomson Gale, 2007]
It has been reported that, beginning in 1974, thousands of Bangladeshis moved to the Indian state of Assam, and, in the 1980s, some tribal groups from the Chittagong Hills crossed into the Indian state of Tripura for political reasons, contributing to bilateral problems with India. Bangladeshis also migrated to the Middle East and other regions, where a large number of skilled and unskilled persons found work. Bangladesh also lost some highly skilled members of the work force to Western Europe and North America. [Source: James Heitzman and Robert Worden, Library of Congress, 1989 *]
Out migration (in millions) in the early 2000s: 1) Mexico (-6.0); 2) Bangladesh (-4.1); 3) Afghanistan (-4.1); 4) Philippines (-2.9). [Source: United Nations Population Division]
Many middle class Bangladeshis aspire to send their children abroad for university. Many have relatives in the United States, Britain or another country. During the Bangladesh War of Liberation in 1971, hundreds of thousands of refugees from Bangladesh poured into Calcutta and eastern India. Many of the homeless in Calcutta for a long time were refugees from Bangladesh.
Many Bangladeshis live in the east and northeast of London and in areas of other British cities. Bangladeshis in Britain are much less likely to own a home or pursue higher education than other people in Britain. Money is saved and invested back home. At one time about 95 percent of all Indian restaurants in Britain were run by Bangladeshis.
There are over 30,000 Bangladeshis living in New York City. Many of the taxi drivers and newspaper vendors in New York City are from India, Pakistan or Bangladesh. There are lots of Bengalis in the Bellrose neighborhood of Queens, New York.
Over 1,000 Bangladeshis entered the United States as part of the "Brooklyn bride" marriage scam. Once a bunch of Bangladeshis attempted to enter the United States on visas that stated that were members of a basketball team entering a university competition. Of the 24 "players" only six were taller than 5 foot 7 inches and the "coach' couldn't name one college or profession basketball team in the New York City area.
According to the “”Worldmark Encyclopedia of National Economies””: “In the 1980s and 1990s, the major destinations for Bangladeshi workers seeking temporary jobs were Kuwait, Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates, where they are employed mainly in the low-skill and low-wage construction and service sectors and in agricultural plantations. Other popular destinations for emigration are Western Europe, the Americas and Australia, where large Bangladeshi communities formed during the last 3 decades. According to the CIA World Factbook, the emigration rate stood at the 0.77 migrant(s) per 1,000 population in 2000, or around 1 million a year. [Source: “Worldmark Encyclopedia of National Economies”, The Gale Group Inc., 2002]
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Bangladesh Tourism Board, Bangladesh National Portal (www.bangladesh.gov.bd), The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Wikipedia and various books, websites and other publications.
Last updated February 2022