Population

The estimated population of Bangladesh (2006) is 147,365,352, making Bangladesh one of the ten most populous countries in the world. The population growth rate is 2.1 percent. The overall density, 1,101 persons per sq km (2,850 persons per sq mi) in 2006, is much higher than that of other countries except for microstates such as Singapore. The distribution of the population is relatively even, except in the sparsely populated Chittagong Hill Tracts District and the almost totally uninhabited Sundarbans. Bangladesh supports a large rural population, with only 24 percent of the Bangladeshi people classified as urban in 2003. Most of the people are relatively young, nearly 60 percent being under the age of 25 and only 3 percent being 65 or older. Life expectancy at birth is 62 years.