Demographics of Bangladesh
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Bangladesh, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
| Demographics of Bangladesh | |
|---|---|
.JPG) |
|
| 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, Chittagonian, Sylheti, 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 |
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 degree of uncertainty about the population, especially in a developing country such as Bangladesh with a high level of illiteracy and rural population. For instance, in 2005 there was not a consensus on which of Bangladesh and Russia had the 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 |
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.[11] In Bangladesh it represents about 83% of maternal lineages.[12]
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.
- 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
Like its neighbor India, Bangladesh remains a nation of villages. In spite of the sprawling mega-city of Dhaka, the vast majority live 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, Shia, non-Bengalis who emigrated from the Indian province 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. In the 1971 independence war many of them sided with Pakistan, as they stood to lose their positions in the upper levels of society.[13] 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.[13] Refugees International has called them a "neglected and stateless" people as they are denied citizenship by the governments of Bangladesh and Pakistan.[14] 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.[15]
Bangladesh's tribal population was enumerated at 897,828 in the 1981 census.[13] 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 Buddhists or Hindus.[13] The four largest tribes are the Chakmas, Marmas, Tipperas and Mros. Smaller groups include the Santals in Rajshahi and Dinajpur, and Khasis, Garos, and Khajons in Mymensingh and Sylhet regions.[13]
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.[16] 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.[17]
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.[18]
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.[19] 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 (spoken by many Muslims), 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
See also
- Bangladeshi society
References
This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook document "2006 edition".- This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Department of State (Background Notes).
- ↑ The World Factbook, CIA, accessed on Feb 13, 2010.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Bangladesh Burueau of Statistics
- ↑ "Indicators: Bangladesh". United Nations Population Fund. http://www.unfpa.org/profile/bangladesh.cfm. Retrieved 2006-07-28.
- ↑ Medium fertility variant, "World Population Prospects: 2004 Revision". UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. http://esa.un.org/unpp/.
- ↑ "Background Note: Bangladesh". U.S. Department of State. 2005-08. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3452.htm.
- ↑ "Country Profiles: Bangladesh". Population Reference Bureau. http://www.prb.org/TemplateTop.cfm?Section=PRB_Country_Profiles&template=/customsource/countryprofile/countryprofiledisplay.cfm&Country=395. Retrieved 2006-07-28.
- ↑ "CIA World Factbook 2006". CIA. http://www.umsl.edu/services/govdocs/wofact2006/geos/bg.html#People.
- ↑ "State of World Population 2006". United Nations Population Fund. http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2006/english/notes/indicators/e_indicator2.pdf.
- ↑ "CIA World Factbook 2007". CIA. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bg.html#People.
- ↑ "World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision". UN. http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/wpp2006/wpp2006_highlights.pdf.
- ↑ Ghezzi et al. (2005), Mitochondrial DNA haplogroup K is associated with a lower risk of Parkinson's disease in Italians, European Journal of Human Genetics (2005) 13, 748–752.
- ↑ Mait Metspalu et al., Most of the extant mtDNA boundaries in South and Southwest Asia were likely shaped during the initial settlement of Eurasia by anatomically modern humans. BMC Genetics, 2004
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 Ethnic and Linguistic Diversity, Bangladesh: A Country Study, Edited by James Heitzman and Robert Worden, Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1989.
- ↑ Refugees of Nowhere: The Stateless Biharis of Bangladesh, Refugees International, 2006-02-15
- ↑ "Citizenship for Bihari refugees". BBC News. 2008-05-19. 7407757. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7407757.stm. Retrieved 2008-05-21.
- ↑ 2010 Regional Operations Profile - South-East Asia, UNHCR, 2010.
- ↑ Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh refuse repatriation, AFP, Dec 30, 2009.
- ↑ [1] BANBEIS
- ↑ [2] Bangladesh Census 2001
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||