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Data-driven policy intelligence across health, climate action, and social justice — turning evidence into actionable decisions for Bangladesh.

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Bangladesh's jobs are drifting back to the farm — and young women are the most shut out

Farming's share of employment has risen from 40.6% in 2017 to 44.3% in 2025, while youth unemployment is 9.4% and one in five young women is neither studying nor working. A country that moved workers off the land for three decades has stopped doing so.

Source: International Labour Organization, ILOSTAT modelled estimates, via World Bank WDI (SL.AGR.EMPL.ZS, SL.IND.EMPL.ZS, SL.SRV.EMPL.ZS)

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Farming's share of jobs has risen again since 2019
Share of total employment by sector, %, 1991–2025 (modelled ILO estimates)

Lead poisoning crisis threatens 35 million Bangladeshi children

Bangladesh ranks among the worst-affected countries on Earth for childhood lead exposure — a silent epidemic that quietly erodes children's intelligence, health, and future earnings.

Source: UNICEF, Pure Earth & IEDCR, Bangladesh childhood blood-lead survey (2024). Figures indicate the share of tested children exceeding the WHO 5 µg/dL reference level.

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Share of children exceeding the WHO lead reference level, by district
% of tested children with blood-lead above 5 µg/dL · Bangladesh, 2024

Bangladesh's lights run on fossil fuels — and the gas that powered them is giving way to costlier coal and imports

In 2024, 97.7% of Bangladesh's electricity came from gas, coal and oil, and net imports met 48% of energy use. Demand keeps rising while the cheapest domestic fuel loses ground.

Source: IEA Energy Statistics, via World Bank WDI (EG.USE.ELEC.KH.PC)

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Each Bangladeshi uses almost four times the electricity of 2005, yet still only about 630 kWh a year
Electric power consumption, kWh per person, 1990–2024

Dengue's record year — 2023 brought more cases than the previous 23 years combined

Bangladesh recorded 321,179 dengue hospitalisations and 1,705 deaths in 2023. A disease once confined to Dhaka's monsoon season has become a year-round, nationwide threat.

Source: Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) year-end counts, as reported by UNB and Health Science Reports (Hossain et al., 2026)

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2023 was Bangladesh's worst dengue year on record
Dengue patients hospitalised per year, 2018–2024

Our Latest Data Insights

Bite-sized findings on how the world is changing — published regularly by the DEEPLAB research team.

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Women's literacy has risen from 18% to 77% since 1981, nearly closing the gap with men

DEEPLAB Research Team 📅 October 25

Adult literacy among Bangladeshi women rose from 18% in 1981 to 76.5% in 2022, while men's rose from 39.7% to 81.4%. The gender gap narrowed from 21.8 to 4.9 percentage points.

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, via World Bank WDI (SE.ADT.LITR.FE.ZS, SE.ADT.LITR.MA.ZS)

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Half of Bangladesh's 10-year-olds cannot read a simple text: learning poverty was 51.2% in 2022

DEEPLAB Research Team 📅 October 25

World Bank and UNESCO data put learning poverty in Bangladesh at 51.2% in 2022 (54.2% for boys, 49.1% for girls), close to India and Indonesia in earlier years and far above Viet Nam and Sri Lanka.

Source: World Bank and UNESCO Institute for Statistics, via World Bank WDI (SE.LPV.PRIM)

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Nearly 1 in 5 Bangladeshis still die early from chronic disease — 18.1% in 2021

DEEPLAB Research Team 📅 October 25

The probability of dying between ages 30 and 70 from heart disease, cancer, diabetes or chronic lung disease fell from 24.7% in 2000 to 18.1% in 2021, but progress has been slow since 2014.

Source: World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory, via World Bank WDI (SH.DYN.NCOM.ZS)

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Bangladesh's protected waters grew from 1.4% to 8.6% since 2013, but protected land slipped to 4.2%

DEEPLAB Research Team 📅 October 25

Marine protected areas rose from 1.4% of territorial waters in 2013 to 8.6% in 2025, while terrestrial protected areas fell from 4.7% to 4.2% of land.

Source: UNEP-WCMC and IUCN, Protected Planet (WDPA), via World Bank WDI (ER.MRN.PTMR.ZS, ER.LND.PTLD.ZS)

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Farming methane fell 11% in two years, but at 47 Mt it is still a fifth of Bangladesh's emissions

DEEPLAB Research Team 📅 October 24

Methane from agriculture rose from 38 to 53 million tonnes of CO₂-equivalent between 1990 and 2022, then fell to 47 million by 2024 — still about 21% of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions.

Source: EDGAR (Joint Research Centre, European Commission), via World Bank WDI (EN.GHG.CH4.AG.MT.CE.AR5)

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Newborn deaths in Bangladesh have fallen to 18 per 1,000, but the decline has nearly stalled

DEEPLAB Research Team 📅 October 24

Neonatal mortality fell from 66 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 17.9 in 2024, yet it dropped by only 1.4 points between 2019 and 2024, compared with 5.3 points between 2010 and 2015.

Source: UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME), via World Bank WDI (SH.DYN.NMRT)

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Latest Research Articles

In-depth analysis on health equity, climate resilience, and poverty alleviation — published regularly by the DEEPLAB research team.

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Bangladesh breathes air far above every safety threshold
Climate
Bangladesh's air is cutting years off its people's lives

Bangladesh has some of the most polluted air on Earth. Fine particles at more than ten times the WHO guideline shorten the average life by around five years — more in Dhaka.

Key Finding
4.8 years
The average Bangladeshi's life expectancy is cut by about 4.8 years by fine particle pollution compared with air that meets the WHO guideline, according to the Air Quality Life Index.
DEEPLAB Research TeamOctober 2026
Child marriage is falling, but slowly
Social Justice
Half of Bangladeshi women still marry as children

Bangladesh has cut child marriage from nearly three in four young women in the 1990s to under half today — but it still has the highest rate in South Asia, and progress is far too slow to meet the country's own targets.

Key Finding
38 million
Women and girls in Bangladesh who were married before age 18, including 13 million married before 15, according to UNICEF.
DEEPLAB Research TeamOctober 2026
2023 was Bangladesh's worst dengue year on record
Health
Dengue's record year — 2023 brought more cases than the previous 23 years combined

Bangladesh recorded 321,179 dengue hospitalisations and 1,705 deaths in 2023. A disease once confined to Dhaka's monsoon season has become a year-round, nationwide threat.

Key Finding
321,179
Dengue hospitalisations in 2023 alone — more than the 242,919 recorded in all 23 years from 2000 to 2022 combined.
DEEPLAB Research TeamOctober 2026

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How Is Bangladesh Doing?

The latest figures from our data sources, refreshed monthly: what's improving and where we still need to act.

All data sources →
Under-5 mortality
30.5
↓ 10 since 2014
deaths per 1,000 live births · 2024
Maternal mortality
115
↓ 115 since 2013
deaths per 100,000 live births · 2023
DTP3 immunization
97%
Unchanged since 2014
of children aged 12–23 months · 2024
Skilled birth attendance
59%
↑ 34.6pp since 2009
of births · 2019
Safe drinking water (rural)
62.5%
↑ 1.4pp since 2014
of rural people, safely managed · 2024
Primary school completion
94.3%
↑ 33.4pp since 2010
of the relevant age group · 2024
Girls in secondary school
70.5%
↑ 13pp since 2013
gross enrolment ratio · 2024
Extreme poverty
5.9%
↓ 19.2pp since 2010
living on under $3.00 a day · 2022
GDP growth
3.5%
↓ 3.1pp since 2015
annual, constant prices · 2025
Cereal yield
5,408
↑ 849.2 since 2014
kg per hectare · 2024
Renewable electricity
1.5%
↓ 0.7pp since 2011
of electricity generated · 2021
Women in the labour force
38.7%
↑ 5.1pp since 2015
of women aged 15+ · 2025
DEEPLAB Policy Analyzer

Evidence-Based Policy Made Simple

Ask our policy tool any question about Bangladesh, and it answers through three lenses: what the data shows, what the economics say, and who benefits and who's left behind. For example:

Question

"Aggressive tobacco control vs outdoor air pollution — which deserves priority when one costs tax revenue?"

DATA
  • Smoking: 36M smokers · ~160,000 deaths/yr · 2nd hand smoke kills 26,000 more · affects 1 in 3 men
  • Air pollution: PM2.5 causes ~230,000 deaths/yr · 3x bigger burden than smoking · no tax revenue exists to "protect"
ECONOMICS
  • Tobacco control: Excise tax = ৳1,200 Cr/yr gov revenue · aggressive regulation loses this · public health gain outweighs
  • Air pollution: Costs ৳180 Cr/yr in healthcare · industrial regulation has no revenue tradeoff · higher ROI per taka invested
EQUITY
  • Smoking: Poorest smoke most · regressive industry targeting low-income
  • Air pollution: Everyone exposed · but poor have worst health outcomes, worse housing ventilation
Recommendation Pursue both — but air pollution is the urgent blind spot. 3x death burden + zero revenue loss makes it politically easier. Use tobacco tax revenue strategically (৳200 Cr/yr) to fund air quality monitoring & industrial regulation. The revenue shouldn't drive health policy.
Sources: WHO Global Health Observatory · Bangladesh National Health Survey 2017 · Ministry of Health DGHS · Bangladesh Environmental Protection Agency · Lancet Commission on Pollution 2024
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Health

Disease Prevention•Vaccination•Healthcare Systems•Maternal & Child Health•Nutrition & Wellness•Mental Health•Health Outcomes

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Inequality & Poverty•Income Distribution•Gender Equality•Labor Rights & Justice•Child Labor•Access to Justice•Human Rights

Climate Action

Carbon Emissions•CO₂ & Greenhouse Gases•Renewable Energy•Sea Level & Oceans•Natural Disasters•Biodiversity Loss•Climate Resilience
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