Over a third of Bangladesh's current 169.828-million-strong population has no education, employment and job training as per latest total headcount that also shows a significant female-male demographic transformation.
For the first time in the country's history, women outnumber men in official count the final report on which was published Tuesday by the national statistical body.
The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) in its final 'Population and Household Census Report 2022' also showed that the total population after the post-enumeration check (PEC) of the census increased by 4.67 million from its preliminary report of 165.158 million unveiled in July last.
The country's population has grown at a little slower pace of 1.12 per cent found in the latest census compared to 1.37 per cent in the previous census held in 2011.
The census 2022 has also shown that the proportion of women to men for the first time is higher than the previous census results.
According to the BBS, the proportion of women to men stood at 100:98.02 in the latest census report.
The country's lone national statistical organization (NSO) -BBS-unveiled its final population and household census report 2022 after the previous flagship report in 2011. It shows another transformative demographic feature-growing rural-to-urban migration.
With BBS Director-General Mohammad Mizanur Rahman in the chair, Planning Minister MA Mannan was present as the chief guest at the census-report-dissemination programme in the city.
The census 2022 shows that a total of 34.02 per cent of the 10 years and above age of population are still out of education, employment and training.
Out of the percentage, a total of 52.76-percent females have no education, employment and training while 13.28-percent male are in the same situation in Bangladesh.
Out of the total population, 84.134 million are male, which is 49.54 per cent of the total 169.828 million, and the rest 85.686 million are female, which is 50.46 per cent of the total population, the BBS census shows.
In the last census 2011, the proportion of the female population to male was lower and recorded at 100:100.30 and in 2001 census was 100:106.35.
However, the impressive part of the census is a fall in the dependency rate in the latest Census 2022. The dependency ratio in Bangladesh has decreased to 52.63 per cent in the latest headcount. In the last 2011 census the dependency ratio was 73 per cent and in 2001 census was 82.70 per cent.
Meanwhile, the population in urban areas has also increased to 31.66 per cent while the remaining 68.346 per cent people live in the rural areas.
The BBS collected the countrywide population and household data on June 15-21 of the last calendar year, 2023.
In terms of the population density, the BBS has given the bad news that it has increased to 1,119 persons living in per square-kilometre area in 2022 from 976 persons in 2011.
Dhaka South City Corporation and North City Corporation are the densest area in the country where a total of 4.305 million and 5.99 million people live in respectively by official count.
Private guess on Dhaka population is much higher in a centripetal demographic distribution that draws people of all sections to the burgeoning capital with concentration of facilities.
In terms of religious factors, Muslim population increased to 91.08 per cent as of 2022 from 90.39 per cent in 2011. The Hindus declined to 7.96 per cent in the 2022 count from 8.54 per cent in 2011.
Buddhists and Christians also dropped to 0.61 per cent and 0.30 per cent respectively in 2022 from 0.62 per cent and 0.31 per cent in 2011.
The census shows the youth (15-24 years) increased to 19.11 per cent of the total population from 18.16 per cent in 2011.
The literacy rate (7 years and above) had also increased significantly to 74.80 per cent in 2022 from 51.77 per cent in 2011.
Out of the literate population, 89.26 per cent achieved general education, 7.19 per cent religious education, 0.81 per cent technical education and the rest 2.74 per cent other categories of education.
The BBS discloses that 69.93 per cent of the total population (above 15 years) uses the mobile phone. Among them, 66.17-per cent are in rural areas and 77.77 per cent in urban areas.
Some 36.92 per cent of the population utilise internet where rural participation is 31.21 per cent and the urban participation is 48.86 per cent.
Meanwhile, 1.37 per cent of the total population is disabled, as of 2022, against 1.41 per cent in 2011.
The transgendered population in Bangladesh has been recorded at 8,124.
The number of households also increased to 41.01 million in 2022 from 32.17 million in 2011. But the household size has declined to 3.98 from that of 4.44 in 2011.
According to the BBS, 1.736 million live in slums. The total slum households in the country are 0.05 million. The country has 22,185 floating people.
Some 99.24 per cent of the total population had come under the electricity coverage in 2022 from that of 55.60 per cent in 2011.
The report-dissemination programme was addressed, among others, by Statistics and Informatics Division Secretary Dr Shahnaj Arefin, Planning Commission Member Nasima Begum, and General Economics Division Member Dr Md Kawser Ahammad.
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