Life expectancy of Bangladeshis rises to 72.6 years

Published at 02:29 pm June 30th, 2020

Photo: Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune

Records show that gain in life expectancy has been somewhat pronounced among females since 2001 due to higher survival rates

The average life expectancy of Bangladeshis has risen to 72.6 years in 2019, up from 72.3 years in 2018.

The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) made the announcement on Tuesday while unveiling its Bangladesh Sample Vital Statistics 2019 report.

“The overall life expectancy at birth has increased by a narrow margin of 0.3 years over the last year, going from 72.3 years in 2018 to 72.6 years in 2019, with higher longevity of 74.2 years for females compared to the longevity of 71.1 years for males,” said the report.

Records show that gain in life expectancy has been somewhat pronounced among females since 2001 due to higher survival rates, it said.

Meanwhile, the neonatal mortality rate fell from 20 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2015 to 16 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2019.

Besides, postneonatal mortality rate -- the number of deaths occurring after 28 days of age and before one year -- in 2019 recorded a minor decline over the last one year from nine per 1,000 live births in 2015 to six per 1,000 live births in 2019.

According to the report, maternal mortality ratio has shown a consistent fall over the past five years, from 1.81 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2015 to 1.65 in 2019, a 1.76% decline annually over a period of five years.

“However, the age of first marriage especially of males by and large has gone down marginally. The age of first marriage for males computed in 2015 was 25.3 years, which decreased to 25.1 years in 2017 and further to 24.2 years in 2019.

“Whereas, the female age at first marriage has remained almost static,” added the report.

“The overall disability rate estimated from the 2019 round of survey is 8.4 per thousand populations desolating significantly higher risk among men (9.2) than women (7.6),” said the report.

Crude birth rate, the simplest measure of fertility, has been estimated at 18.1 per thousand population in 2019 as compared to 18.3 in 2018.

As per the survey findings, the migration rate was 72.4% in 2019.