Population & Religion

 

People and Religion

 

According to 2020, the population of Bangladesh was estimated to be 163.1 (approximate) people. The country has a population density of 2,600 (approximately) per square kilometers. As population, Bangladesh was the 8th country in the world. According to density of population Bangladesh was 12th in the world. Among 64 districts the capital city, Dhaka is the most populous country in Bangladesh as well as in the world. The Bangladesh Bureau of statics implied an average rate of natural increase of 1.57%. This natural growth was satisfied, as the number of birth exceeds the number of deaths by 2 79 535.
Bangladesh Demographics Profile
Population 166,280,712

Through the 1960’s and 1970’s, the birth rate in Bangladesh was among the highest in the world but that started to slow down considerably in the 1980’s. The fertility rate is now at 2.55 children born per woman. Bangladesh has a fairly young population with 34% aged 15 and younger and just 5% aged 65 and older.

 

The overwhelming majority of Bangladeshis are ethnic Bengalis, comprising 98% of the population. The remainder are mostly Biharis and indigenous tribal groups. There is also a small but growing population of Rohingya refugees from Burma around Cox's Bazaar, which Bangladesh seeks to repatriate to Burma. The indigenous tribal peoples are concentrated in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in the southeast. There are 13 tribal groups located in this region, the largest being the Chakma. The Hill Tracts region has been a source of unrest and separatism since and before the inception of Bangladesh. Outside the Hill Tracts, the largest tribal groups are the Santhals and Garos (Achiks), while smaller groups include the Kaibartta, Meitei, Mundas, Oraons, and Zomi.

Nearly all Bangladeshis speak Bangla as their mother tongue and it is the official language. It is an Indo-Aryan language of Sanskrit origin with its own script. English is used as a second language among the middle and upper classes. English is also widely used in higher education and the legal system. Historically, laws were written in English and translated into Bengali until 1987 when the procedure was reversed. The Bihari population speaks Urdu, which was also the language associated with the government prior to separation from Pakistan.

Bangladesh is one of the largest Muslim countries in the world. About 80 percent of Bangladeshis are Muslims. Most Bangladeshi Muslims are Sunnis, but there is a small Shia community. Hinduism constitutes about 12 percent of the population. Hindus in Bangladesh in the 1990s were almost evenly distributed in all regions, with concentrations in Khulna, Jessore, Dinajpur, Faridpur, and Barisal.

There are significant numbers of Buddhists and Christians in Bangladesh. In the Chittagong Hills, Buddhist tribes formed the majority of the population and their religion appeared to be a mixture of tribal cults and Buddhist doctrines. According to the 1981 census, there were approximately 600,000 Buddhists in Bangladesh, representing less than 1 percent of the population. In the 1990s, Christianity had about 600,000 adherents, mainly Roman Catholic, and their numbers were growing rapidly.

Bangladesh also has a very small number of tribal community that obey a different type of religious beliefs.