Average life expectancy at birth rises to 72.3 years in Bangladesh

The life expectancy at birth in the country has increased to 72.3 years in 2018, up from 72.0 years in 2017.

The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) disclosed the information during a function at its auditorium in the city’s Agargaon area on Wednesday, reports BSS.

The programme was arranged to disseminate the report on Bangladesh Sample Vital Statistics 2018.

Planning Minister MA Mannan spoke at the function as the chief guest while Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Md Nojibur Rahman spoke as special guest while Statistics and Informatics Division Secretary Sourendra Nath Chakraborty was in the chair.

Director General of the BBS Krishna Gain gave the welcome address and Project Director of the Monitoring the Situation of Vital Statistics of Bangladesh (MSVSB) 2nd Phase Project AKM Ashraful Haque made a presentation on the report.

The report said that the achievement in the life expectancy is somewhat higher among the females (73.8 years) than that among the males (70.8 years) resulting from a higher survival advantage in favour of females.

The report showed that the total population of the country as of 1st of January 2019 stood at 165.57 million including 82.87 million males and 82.70 million females.

Speaking on the occasion, Planning Minister MA Mannan said that like in the country’s economy, there has been a landslide change at the BBS over the years.

Noting that the BBS has already attained a level of credibility, he said that global organisations like the IMF and ADB speak highly of the BBS.

Mannan revealed that the government has a plan to set up a national statistics institute in the country to impart training to the statisticians.

PM’s Principal Secretary Md Nojibur Rahman said that with the sincere efforts and inclination of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the statistical management in Bangladesh has upgraded over the years while the Prime Minister also wants to put due emphasis on statistics.

He said that due to various steps of the government, the life expectancy at birth in the country is increasing along with their living standards.

Nojibur suggested for disseminating this report at the district level to reach its results to the grassroots people.

The enumerated population in the registration area shows a sex ratio of 100.2 resulting from a total 630605 males and 629139 females.

The overall sex ratio has shown a moderate decline over the last five years from 102.5 in 2014 to 100.2 in 2018.

The age structure of the population is still conducive to high fertility with 28.8 per cent of its total population being under the age of 15.

The dependency ratio fell from 57 per cent in 2014 to 51 per cent in 2018. Dependency ratio recorded a notable fall from 80 in 2002 to 51 in 2018.

The average household size dropped from 4.3 in 2014 to 4.2 in 2018. Bangladeshi women are still dominated by their male counterpart. This has been reflected from a high male household headship rate of 85.8 per cent in 2018.

This rate was 87.8 in 2014 demonstrating a moderate decline over the last 5 years.

The report said the crude birth rate (CBR), the simplest measure of fertility was estimated at 18.3 per thousand population in 2018 as compared to 18.5 in 2017. The

CBR fell from 18.9 in 2014 to 18.3 in 2018, demonstrating an average decrease of less than one per cent over the five years since 2014.

The crude death rate (CDR) declined from 5.2 in 2014 to 5.0 in 2018 while the infant mortality rate (IMR) recorded a moderate fall from 24 per thousand live births in 2017 to 22 per thousand live births in 2018.

The neonatal mortality rate fell from 21 deaths per 1000 live births in 2014 to 16 deaths per 1000 live births in 2018 revealing notable sex differentials in favour of females.

Maternal mortality ratio has shown a consistent fall over the last five years from 1.93 maternal deaths per 1000 live births in 2014 to 1.69 in 2018, about 12 per cent decline in 5 years.