REJAUL KARIM BYRON and MD ABBAS

The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) yesterday published its population census for 2022, placing the number of Bangladeshi citizens living abroad at about 50.53 lakh, which is a third of that reported by other government agencies.

Of them, about 40.61 percent are from Chattogram while 28.32 percent are from Dhaka, the BBS said in the “Population and Housing Census 2022: National Report”, unveiled at its office in the capital.

Planning Minister MA Mannan and Executive Director of the Policy Research Institute (PRI) Ahsan H Mansur spoke at the unveiling ceremony, among other officials of the ministry and the BBS.

In his budget speech on June 1, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said more than 1.49 crore Bangladeshi workers are employed in 176 countries worldwide.

Similarly, the Bureau of Manpower, Employment, and Training (BMET) had said more than 1.49 crore Bangladeshi citizens have been living abroad from 1976 to January 2023.

Regarding the discrepancies in expatriate data, Dipankar Roy, joint secretary of the Statistics and Information Division, said the BMET’s data only includes those who went abroad for work, but not those who returned.

He further clarified that the BBS census is based on individuals who have been out of Bangladesh for at least the past six months.

Asked about the discrepancies, Planning Minister Mannan said he would look into the matter.

Addressing the event, PRI Executive Director Mansur said the actual number of Bangladeshi citizens living abroad is likely aligned or just slightly higher than that reported by the BBS.

Md Kawser Ahmed, member (secretary) of the Bangladesh Planning Commission, said the difference between BBS and government statistics suggests that the former should take steps to unify the data.

Shahnaz Arefin, secretary at the Statistics and Informatics Division, suggested initiating talks with concerned ministries to reduce data discrepancies.

As per the BBS report, the country’s total population is 16.98 crore, with 49.54 percent being male and 50.46 percent female.

The average population growth stood at 1.12 percent during the period under census (2011-2022) while it was 1.37 percent previously.

This was the first time that the BBS counted the number of people living in slums as well, revealing a total of 17.36 lakh residents.