Population Challenges of Bangladesh

Bangladesh is the 8th largest country in the world with a population of 142.3 million in 2011 (BBS, Population and Housing Census 2011, Preliminary Results) living in an area of 147,570 sq km. The population density of the country is 964 per sq km that makes it the most populous country in the world with the exception of island nations/territories such as Singapore and Hong Kong. Early policy makers of the country identified population as the number one problem of the country and devised policies and strategies to control population growth. Consequently, the population growth rate declined from 2.48 percent per annum in 1974 to 1.34 percent per annum in 2011. TFR has decreased from 5.04 in 1981 to 2.15 per woman in 2009 with 2.28 in rural and 1.65 in urban areas (BBS, Report on Sample Vital Registration System – 2009). These are commendable achievements for a least developed country like Bangladesh but it is far from what the country needs to achieve for sustainability particularly social sustainability.

Crime rate (based on unit of population) of Bangladesh

Crime rate of a country hinge on total population and the number of committed crime, it may so be said. A crime is expressed as the number of crime per unit of population or some other bases. In this index people belonging to the age group of 10 to 64 years have been counted as the population. Peoples of such ages are more likely to be involved in committing crime and victimization in the context of Bangladesh. In the year 2007 the population size of Bangladesh was about 13.42* corers (Population Census Report, 2001) but the present study has counted 87,019,821 (aged 10 to 64) **and the number of committed crime were 165,339. The index has taken 1 lakh as the unit of population. The calculated crime rate in Bangladesh (2007) was 190.00.