“The Salient Characteristics of Population and Labor

Force of Bangladesh”
Graded Assignment 01

Course code: G102

Course Name: Bangladesh Studies

Submitted to
Wasel Bin Shadat, PhD
Assistant Professor
IBA, University of Dhaka

Submitted by
Roll- 04
Sec- B
BBA 31

Date of submission: 27/07/23

INTRODUCTION:

Bangladesh, the 94th largest country with the 8th largest population, is our homeland. Clearly the
population and the area are not in proportion. This population plays a significant role in the
lifestyle of people and the development of the country. There have been noticeable changes in
the trends and characteristics of our population with time. Some of these changes were for good,
while others not so much. The most important group of this population that is the labor forces
have some distinct characteristics as well. This essay focuses on the salient characteristics of
both our population and the labor forces.

POPULATION:

Population and housing censuses are important for a country’s evaluation of what is happening in
every corner of the country since the census involves every citizen irrespective of background,
religion, age or gender. It provides valuable information regarding the demographic conditions,
trends and changes in the social situations of the country.

Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) conducted the 6th Population and Housing census from
June 15-22 2022. According to this census, the total population of Bangladesh is 169,828,911
which has more than doubled since the first population census of Bangladesh in 1974 when
population was only 76,398,000. The key indicators of this 16 crore population has changed over
the time as well. Here we will discuss some of the important characteristics and indicators of our
population.

 Population growth and density: As the population keeps growing, so does the population
density. The population density of Bangladesh has increased from 976 to1119 between
two consecutive censuses conducted in 2011 and 2022 respectively. However the growth
rate has consistently decreased. In 1981, 1991, 2001 and 2011 the growth rate of
population was 2.32%, 2.01%, 1.58% and 1.37% respectively. In 2022, it has come down
to 1.22%. This means that people understand the consequences of having a huge
population and are gradually leaning towards family planning and smaller household
sizes.
 Sex ratio: Till 2011, the sex ratio was above 100 i.e. male population was always higher
than the female population. However in 2022, the ratio came down to 98.04 which meant

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 a greater female population. Currently total number of males in our country is84, 077,203
which makes 49.51% of the total population while the number of females is 85,653,120
which is approximately 50.43%.
 Population by location: The total rural population of Bangladesh is 116,066,925 and the
urban population is 53,761,986 which is almost half. In days of urbanization, almost 70%
of our total population is still living in the underdeveloped rural areas of Bangladesh.
Others are moving to the urban areas in search of work or livelihood, causing Dhaka to
become the most densely populated division, with the highest urban population
(20,738,739) in the country. However during pandemic a portion of population moved
back due to lack of job opportunities in the city.
 Ethnic minority: In 2022, Bangladesh had only 1.00% ethnic minority people which
decreased from 1.10% in 2011. This percentage is highest in the Chittagong division
(2.99%) and lowest in Barisal division (0.05%). The decrease in population is alarming as
they are an integral part of our culture and country.
 Population by religion: Even though Bangladesh is a secular country, it’s mostly Islam
dominated. Muslims occupy 91.01% of the total population with a population of
154,542,078 which has increase from 90.39% in 2011.The non Muslim population is only
15,200,876 which includes 7.95% Hindus, 0,61% Buddhists, 0.3% Christians and 0.12%
from other religions.
 Literacy Rate: In 2011 the literacy rate at national level was only 51.77% which jumped
to 74.66% in 2022. This is a significant success for Bangladesh. According to the 2022
census the rate of literacy among male and female population is 76.56% and 72.82%
respectively. In the rural area this rate is 71.56% while in the urban area it is a remarkable
81.28%. Bangladesh government played a huge role in this rise by facilitating
compulsory primary education, female education, and scholarships to create an educated
population.
 Population by age: In 2022 the highest population percentage belongs to the 15-19 age
group with 10.10% of total population However in 2011, the highest population belonged
to the 5-9 age group with 12.62% of total population who grew up and created the current
15-19 group. The future of our country, the youth population (15-24) consisted of 19.27%
of the total population in 2022 which was a rise from the 18.16% population from 2011

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 census. The detailed population distribution between different age groups can be seen
from the age-sex pyramid.
 Mobile and Internet users: Total mobile phone users in 2022aged 5 years and above were
55.89% of the total population whereas internet users were only 30.68%.About 70% of
the total population is unaware of digitalization and we still have a long way to go to
become smart Bangladesh.

LABOR FORCE:

The quarterly labor force survey 2022 by BBS defines labor force as the people who can
contribute or are available to contribute to this production and consists of both employed and
unemployed. The QLFS provides us with an idea about the labor force, structure of employment,
and several levels and trends of our overall employment and an overview of the recent
employment scenario of the country.

The labor force of Bangladesh consists of a total population of 73.41 million, which was
previously 60.7 million in 2013 and 62.1 million in 2016. The current labor force is only around
43% of our total population.

 Employed population: the employed population of Bangladesh has been rapidly

increasing. In 2010, 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2022 the number of employed people by
millions were 54.3, 58.1, 59.5, 60.8and 70.7 respectively. This shows that more jobs were
created keeping pace with the population growth as the country is trying to utilize its
demographic divident.
 Unemployment rate: The unemployment problem of Bangladesh was once a major
barrier for economic development of the country. But in the last few years, campaigns to
eradicate this issue were conducted and the unemployment rate has declined from 4.3%
in 2013 to 3.6% in 2022. In the last 6 years, it decreased up to 0.07 million and became
2.63million. But the definition of employment and unemployment is pretty impractical as
working for 1 hour per week is also considered as employment here. So in real sense
much of the employed population is barely employed.
 Sectoral composition: Since the beginning, agriculture sector has been comprised of the
highest labor force in the country. Employed population involved in agriculture was 32.3

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 million, 25.4 million and 26.2 million in 2022, 2016 and 2013 respectively. Service
sector comprised of 22 million in 2016and increased to 26.65 million in 2022. The least
population was found in the industrial sector with only 12.2 million in 2016and 12.05
million in 2022. Thus Bangladesh continues to be an agricultural country and the high
rural population is the reason behind this. The lack of employment in the industrial sector
is because of the presence and rapid increase of automation in that sector as well as
migration to rural roots during the pandemic.
 Non labor force: Although total labor force population has been increasing gradually, the
population not in labor force fluctuates. If we notice the trends of not in labor force from
2010 to 2022, we will notice that even though it increased from 38.9 in 2010 to 45.6 in
2013, in the next3 years, there was a decline of 1.6 million not in labor force.
Unfortunately this decline did not last long and by 2022, it again reached 46.5 million.
 Female employment: Of the entire labor force of 73.41 million, female labor force is only
25.93 million which is barely35%. This shows that the taboo of women working is still
prevalent in society, creating a hindrance in our overall development. However female
labor force participation rate has increased from 33.5% in 2013 to 42.67% in 2022 which
indicates women empowerment in the society. This participation rate has increased more
in the rural area from 38.6% in 2016 to 50.9% in 2022 while fallen in the urban area from
31% to 23.6%. It could either be the consequence of pandemic on urban industrial market
or the availability of micro credits for rural woman to start small scale businesses or self
employment activities.
 Youth employment: The age group 15-29 is considered to be the youth of a nation. In
2022 only 26.82 million youth were a part of the labor force with 13.31 million females
and 13.51 million males. This number was lower in the previous years with only 11.7
million youth labor force in 2016. This increase in youth labor force is a good sign for the
economic development of Bangladesh. However the rate of youth unemployment is much
higher than the nation unemployment rate which is alarming.

POPULATION OF BANGLADESH: ASSET OR BURDEN?

Population of a country can be both an asset for its development or a burden. Bangladesh is a
highly populated country with a small area and its population is increasing continuously. When

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population increases, the demand for basic resources and services also rises. Since Bangladesh is
yet to be capable of fulfilling these demands, I believe currently the population is a burden for
Bangladesh. The poverty rate is still 18.7% and extreme poverty rate is 5.6% according to HIES
2022, which means this part of the population is being denied of the good living conditions due
to the huge population and income inequality. The population density has caused cutting down of
forests for housing and the food production rate is not proportional to our increasing population.
As a result we import almost all food products, causing economic depression. Over population
has created a scarcity of employment, sanitation, shelter, health services, education and other
basic needs. Overcrowding causes traffic and environment pollution. Thus our population is a
curse right now.

The best way to utilize our population is by utilizing the demographic dividend available in
Bangladesh. Demographic dividend is the boost in economic productivity that occurs when there
are growing numbers of people in the workforce relative to the number of dependents. To avail

this dividend requires a transition to low fertility and mortality rates. As these rates decline,
countries enjoy a period when the ratio of working-age population to both young and old
dependents rises. This provides a one-time “demographic window of opportunity”, freeing up
resources for investment in economic development and other welfare sectors before the
dependency ratio rises again with the growth of the elderly population.

According to the population census 2022, our working age population, aged 15-59 make up
62.14% of our total population which was 54.72% in 2011. Thus this is our peak time to utilize
the demographic dividend. So far we have not been able to do that because only having a high
work age population is not enough, there needs to be enough employment opportunities for them
to help in the economic growth. A large portion of our educated population is still unemployed
due to lack of suitable work. The condition of our tertiary vocational education is subpar and we
are not being able to cope up in this current age of technology due to this lack of skills. So our
huge manpower is only being utilized abroad for manual labor with low pay. Furthermore, our
sex ratio has changed to 98 which mean female population is higher although their labor
participation rate is much lower. Income inequality, corruption, lack of health services, low
investment in rural development and responsible resource management are also causing
hindrance in utilizing our demographic benefits causing it to be more of a burden than an asset.

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To change the current scenario, firstly, we need to train our work-age population according to the
market demand. Our education curriculum needs to be updated and made job and skill oriented
so that we can capture both local and international labor market. The government needs to invest
highly in the ICT sector and technical education to keep up with the digital world. Our health
sector needs to be improved. Good governance needs to be promoted to ensure a steady
economic growth beneficial to the country. Female empowerment has to be focused on to
establish a balanced labor force. And most importantly the policy makers of the country need to
study about our labor force, its trends and shortcomings to stay updated about our demographic
transition and find new ideas to utilize it.

CONCLUSION:

The above essay talks about the salient characteristics of our population and labor force in the
recent years. Studying about trends and changes of population and labor force is important in
developing countries like Bangladesh to ensure the utilization of manpower. Our huge
population may be a burden right now, but it can turn into an asset if we come up with new
policies and techniques to utilize them. Bangladesh has immense opportunities in the current
demographic transition. We just need to make the best use of it.

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Bibliography:

Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (2022a) Population and Housing Census 2022: Preliminary
report.

Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (2022b) Post Enumeration Check of Population and Housing
Census.

Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (2022c) Post enumeration check (PEC) Adjusted population.

Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (2022d) Quarterly Labor Force Survey 2022.

Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (2017) Quarterly Labor Force Survey 2016-17.

K. M. Mustafizur Rahman and Sarker Obaida Nasrin (2011) Population: Asset or burden, The
Daily Star. Available at: https://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-194959 (Accessed: 09
August 2023).

Mohammad Al-Masum Molla, M.A.Z. (2022) Demographic dividend: Are we letting it pass us
by?, The Daily Star. Available at:
https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/demographic-dividend-are-we-letting-
it-pass-us-3094231 (Accessed: 09 August 2023).

Demographic dividend: A roadmap to progress (no date) The Financial Express. Available at:
https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/views/reviews/demographic-dividend-a-roadmap-to-
progress-1600268169 (Accessed: 09 August 2023).

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