Country’s total population now stands at 16.98cr
07 February 2023
Staff Reporter :
Country's total population now stands at 16.98 crore since some 46.7 lakh people were skipped in the Population and Housing Census 2022 report conducted by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
"After the final enumeration, the total population of the country now stands at 16.98 crore," State Minister for Planning Ministry Shamsul Alam said in the NEC Auditorium in the capital on Monday.
On July 27 last year, BBS in its preliminary Population and Housing Census report revealed that the total population of the country was 165,158,616.
But after conducting a Post Enumeration Check (PEC) on the BBS census report, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) found the anomalies of an undercounted population of some 46.7 lakh, which is 2.75 per cent of the country's population.
BIDS Senior Research Fellow Dr Mohammad Yunus presented the PEC results at the NEC Conference room in the Planning Ministry on Monday.
He pointed out that the number of undercounts was higher in urban areas - especially in the cities - where, 3.70 per cent of the population was skipped from the population census.
Even around 2.79 per cent of the female population was skipped against a 2.67 per cent undercount among the male population.
Comparing the population on religious grounds, he said that about 2.75 per cent of undercount was reported in case of Muslim community against 2.68 per cent of adherents of other religions.
About the undercount in the population census in 2001, BIDS Director General Binayak Sen noted that there was an undercount of 4.98 per cent in the census 2001 which dropped
to 3.97 per cent in the census 2011. The Population and Housing Census 2022 report, the average annual population growth rate is 1.22 per cent which was 1.46 in 2011.
The total number of females is 83,347,206 while males are 81,712,824 and the hijras are 12,629, according to the preliminary report of the sixth Population and Housing Census 2022.
In the last census in 2011, the total population was 14.4 crore. Of which, males were 72,109,796 and females were 71,933,901.
Compared with the last census, the total number of population has increased by 21,114,919.
The findings of the report revealed that the population density had increased in the latest Census which stands at 1,119 while it was 976 in the last Census.
The household size has decreased compared with the last Census in 2011 which indicates the rising trend of nuclear families.
The report said, the total number of households in the country is now 35,990,951. Of which, 27,811,667 in rural areas while 8,179,284 in urban areas.
The highest number of households lies in Dhaka division which is 8,119,205, while the lowest number is in Sylhet division 1,885,017.
As per the census, the country's literacy rate now stands at 74.66 per cent which was 51.77 per cent in 2011.
The male literacy rate is 76.56 per cent, female 72.82 per cent and Hijra 53.65 per cent. The highest literacy rate is in Dhaka 78.09 per cent and the lowest Mymensingh 72.82 per cent.
