Bangladesh's male population is on the decline, down by four against every hundred women, while female-led households are on the rise, said a report by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) published on Sunday.
According to base year 2022, Bangladesh's current population till January 2024 stands at 171.59 million, of which 87.39 million are male and 84.2 million are female, as per BBS' Bangladesh Sample Vital Statistics (SVRS) 2023 report.
According to the key findings of the report, there were 171 million people with 83.91 million males and 87.09 million females as of July 1, 2023.
Data analysis also revealed that just a year ago, Bangladesh's total population was 169.83 million.
Among them, the number of males was 84.18 million and females 85.65 million.
The imbalance of the sex ratio was also on the rise, which decreased to 96.3%.
That means against every 100 women, the number of men in the country is only 96.3, which was 97.5, 98.1, 100.2, and 100.2 in 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively.
Along with the increase in the number of women, the number of female-headed families is also increasing.
According to BBS, the number of female-led households in the country is now 18.9%, which was 14.6%, 15%, 16%, and 17.4% in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022, respectively.
The number of male-headed households in the country is 81.1%.
'Not necessarily a good thing'
Shahan Ara Banu, director general, Directorate General of Family Planning, believed that the growth of female-headed families did not necessarily mean the rise of women empowerment.
"The reason for this could be the death of the husband, migrating abroad, or a disability of the son. Hence, there is scope for a more thorough analysis," she observed.
Statistics also revealed the ratio of mobile phone users aged 5 and above stands at 59.9% in 2023.
However, for those aged 15 and above, the rate has slightly increased to 74.2% in 2023 compared to 2022 (73.8%).
Also, 50.1% of all people aged 15 and above used the internet in 2023, the study found.
Meanwhile, the life expectancy of people in Bangladesh stood at 73.3 years in 2023, as compared to 73.4 in 2022.
Alamgir Hossen, project director of SVRS, said this reduction of life expectancy is statistically insignificant.
"We will say it remains unchanged," he added.
At present, about 1,171 people live per square kilometre in Bangladesh.
The number of birth control users has slightly decreased to 62.1% in 2023 compared to 2022 (63.3%). Unmet demand for birth control decreased to 15.57% in 2023 compared to 2022 (16.62%).
The rate of Cesarean section deliveries has increased by more than nine percentage points in one year. C-section deliveries increased to 50.7% in 2023, which is alarming and it calls for further study, said Hossen.
State Minister for Planning Md Shahiduzzaman Sarkar was present as the chief guest at the publication launching event.
