Country’s total population stands at 16.98cr

Staff Reporter :
The final population count in the country is now 16.98 crore as 2.75 per cent or 47 lakh people were left out in the initial BBS census conducted in July this year.
According to the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) left out 47 lakh people and they have added the figure to the actual count.
BIDS revealed this information during a report presentation held at the NEC Conference Room in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in the capital.
The report was revealed in presence of Planning Minister MA Mannan and State Minister for Planning Shamsul Alam. Among others, Secretary of Statistics and Informatics Division Shahnaj Arefin and BIDS Director General Binayek Sen, were present.
Of this population, 8.40 crore are male, and 8.56 crore are female. The Project Director, Dildar Hossain, revealed that the largest number of people live in Dhaka division, with a population of 4.56 crore, which is approximately 27 per cent of the total population.
The smallest number of people lives in Barishal division, with a population of 93 lakh, which is around 5% of the total population.
The Muslim population is 15.46 crore, which is approximately 91.05 per cent of the total population. The number of people from other religions is 1.52 crore, which is approximately 8.95 per cent of the total population.
During the report presentation, the Planning Ministers suggested for finding out new methodology for counting population instead of waiting for a decade as the country is moving towards digitalization.
They have also directed the concerned stakeholders to get experiences from the countries like Norway, Sweden, Denmark and other European countries how they are counting their population each year.
The Planning Minister said, “We have the technology, knowledge, and workforce. We have government officials. So why should we wait for ten years to know the information on population? Why should we spend four billion taka on the census? We need to move away from this approach.”
He directed the BBS to look into how countries like Norway, Finland, and Denmark release updated population information and to consider collaborating with them if necessary.
Speaking on the same wavelength, Shamsul Alam said, “The population data is published within a year in the Netherlands, and that is also happening in other European countries.”
He urged to explore the possibility of publishing population census data within a year in our country as well.
He emphasised the need to move away from the practice of conducting a traditional census and adopting more modern methods for collecting population data.
The BBS conduct population censuses every ten years since 1974, the first census conducted after the country’s independence. Subsequent censuses were conducted in 1981, 1991, 2001, and 2011.
Meanwhile, the BBS did not reveal the population count of the Bangladeshi expatriates living in different lands of the globe.
In reply to a query of the journalist if there was any bar to reveal the information of the expatriates, Project Director Dildar Hossain said, “The tenure of the project is upto 2024. The information of them will be revealed within this period. There is no bar to publish it.”