Bangladesh Table of Contents
Population Structure and Settlement Patterns
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.
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.
In the late 1980s, about 82 percent of the population of Bangladesh
(a total of 15.1 million households) resided in rural areas. With the
exception of parts of Sylhet and Rangamati regions, where settlements
occurred in nucleated or clustered patterns, the villages were scattered
collections of homesteads surrounded by trees. Continuous strings of
settlements along the roadside were also common in the southeastern part
of the country.
Until the 1980s, Bangladesh was the most rural nation in South Asia.
In 1931 only 27 out of every 1,000 persons were urban dwellers in what
is now Bangladesh. In 1931 Bangladesh had fifty towns; by 1951 the
country had eighty-nine towns, cities, and municipalities. During the
1980s, industrial development began to have a small effect on
urbanization. The 1974 census had put the urban population of Bangladesh
at 8.8 percent of the total; by 1988 that proportion had reached 18
percent and was projected to rise to 30 percent by the year 2000.
In 1981 only two cities, Dhaka and Chittagong, had more than 1
million residents. Seven other cities--Narayanganj, Khulna, Barisal,
Saidpur, Rajshahi, Mymensingh, and Comilla--each had more than 100,000
people. Of all the expanding cities, Dhaka, the national capital and the
principal seat of culture, had made the most gains in population,
growing from 335,928 in 1951 to 3.4 million in 1981. In the same period,
Chittagong had grown from 289,981 to 1.4 million. A majority of the
other urban areas each had between 20,000 and 50,000 people. These
relatively small towns had grown up in most cases as administrative
centers and geographically suitable localities for inland transportation
and commercial facilities. There was no particular concentration of
towns in any part of the country. In fact, the only large cities close
to each other were Dhaka and Narayanganj.
Migration
Population Control
Ethnicity and
Linguistic Diversity
For more recent population estimates, see
Facts
about Bangladesh
.
Source:
U.S. Library of Congress
|