Dhaka, Oct 21 (IANS) Bangladesh’s population is now 164.4 million, up from 156 million a decade back, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has said.
The boom should be a matter of concern as it threatens food security, warned Food and Disaster Management Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque who unveiled the report ‘State of World Population 2010’.
The UNFPA report also predicted that the population of the country would be 222.5 million by 2050.
Ganesh Chandra Sarkar, director of the family planning directorate, however, claimed that the population is around 144 million.
In the fourth Population and Housing Census 2001, the population of Bangladesh was stated to be at 124.3 million, The Daily Star quoted Sarkar as saying Thursday.
Bangladesh’s official website puts the population at 156 million as of 2001. A decennial census is to be conducted next March.
According to the UNFPA report 2010, 28 percent people of the country live in urban areas where the population growth is 3.2 per thousand. The fertility rate in the country is 2.25 percent with 72 of every 1,000 females aged between 15 and 19 years old giving birth to their first child.
