Life expectancy declines for first time in 4yrs
The average life expectancy for Bangladeshis declined by six months to 72.3 years in 2021, bucking the upward trend seen since 2017.
"It is not a big drop statistically," said Md Matiar Rahman, director general of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, at the launch of the Sample Vital Registration System (SVRS) 2021 yesterday.
The impact of Covid-19 and its post-effects, such as reduced access to healthcare facilities, poverty, lifestyle, nutrition, delayed vaccination and other biological factors are the reasons behind the decline in life expectancy and the rise in crude death rate, said Mohammad Mainul Islam, former chairperson of Dhaka University's population sciences department.
The crude death rate increased from 5.1 per thousand people to 5.7.
Men's life expectancy declined more than women's.
In 2021, men's life expectancy came down to 70.6 years from 71.2 years and women's from 74.5 to 74.1.
The study also reveals an increase in maternal mortality rate in 2021, with 168 maternal mortalities reported per lakh childbirth. The mortality rate is higher in urban areas compared with rural areas.
The literacy rate increased to 76.4 percent from 75.2 percent in 2020.
However, there is still a significant rural-urban gap in literacy, with the adult literacy rate in rural areas at 71.4 percent compared with 82.5 percent in urban areas.
Women are lagging behind men in literacy attainment.
The crude birth rate has increased slightly to 18.8 per thousand in 2021, and the use of sanitary latrines has increased to 85.8 percent.
Migration from urban areas to rural regions and other towns has seen a rise.
Out of every 1,000 people, eight moved from urban areas to rural in 2021, up from 4.7 in 2020. Rural-to-urban migration declined to 30.8 per thousand from 31.3 the previous year.
The birth control rate has increased to 65.6 percent from 63.9 percent in 2020.
The study looked at the disability rate for the first time: 24 out of every 1,000 people have different types of disability.
As of January 1, 2021, Bangladesh's population stood at 170.26 million. Among them, 84.33 million were men and 85.93 million were women.
About 96.9 percent of households in 2021 use electricity, according to the report.
Planning Minister MA Mannan highlighted the positive indicators, including the increase in literacy rate and more people coming under the electricity connection.
Shamsul Alam, the state minister for planning, and Shahnaz Arefin, secretary of the Statistics and Informatics Division, also spoke.
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