Over 50 lakh Bangladeshis living abroad: Census

The census of 2022 also shows:

• The country's total population is 16,5158,616
• Of the divisions, the highest 4,56,44,586 live in Dhaka
• 17,36,302 live in slums
• 1.57 crore have gone overseas for work since 1976
• Annual population growth rate declined to 1.22% from 1.47% in 2011
• Dhaka South City Corporation is the most densely populated area
• The percentage of the population aged 15-19 is the highest at 10.03%

Over 50 lakh Bangladeshi citizens are currently living abroad, according to the population census of 2022 conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.

The census shows 50,53,358 Bangladeshi citizens were counted as expatriates who had been staying abroad for at least six months preceding the enumeration or had gone abroad with the intention to live there for at least six months. However, experts suggest that the actual number of expatriates might be higher, as some families who moved abroad after the country's independence were not included in the count.

According to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training, 1.57 crore Bangladeshi citizens have gone overseas for work since 1976, the year from which the government started keeping such records.

The BBS says the figure is calculated based on the number of people who have gone abroad for work since the country's independence. The number of expatriates has been calculated using information from various sources, it says.

According to the World Migration Report 2022 by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), in 2020, Bangladesh emerged as the world's sixth largest labour supplier with a workforce of approximately 70 lakh individuals contributing to economies worldwide.

Addressing as chief guest the programme of the release of National Report of Population & Housing Census 2022 at the BBS conference room in Dhaka yesterday Planning Minister MA Mannan said that more work will be done to find out the actual number of expatriates.

Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh, said the number of expatriate Bangladeshis may be less or more than the number of BBS as in the 60s/70s, many Bangladeshis went abroad with their families and were left out to be counted in the census.

The BBS should be empowered to work more independently, he suggested.

Shahnaz Arefin, secretary of the Statistics and Informatics Division, said, "A country needs to have integrated data. For this purpose, the BBS should be made more efficient to let it work more independently."

According to the census, the total population of the country stands at 16,5158,616. Of the population, the highest number is 4,56,44,586 in Dhaka, followed by 3,41,78,612 in Chittagong and 2,07,94,019 in Rajshahi.

Out of the total enumerated population, 17,36,302 people live in slums.

The average annual population growth rate in the country declined to 1.22% from 1.47% in 2011.

In terms of population density, the Dhaka South City Corporation is the most densely populated area with a population of 39,406 people per square kilometre. Among the total population of the country, the percentage of the population aged 15-19 is the highest at 10.03%.