In 2024, 33.3% of women aged 15 and over in Bangladesh had an account at a financial institution or with a mobile-money provider, compared with 53.5% of men. In 2021 the shares were 43.5% for women and 62.9% for men.
20.2 percentage points
Gap between men’s and women’s account ownership, 2024 (19.4 points in 2021).
Women’s ownership had risen steadily in earlier survey rounds, from 26.0% in 2011 to 26.5% in 2014, 35.8% in 2017 and 43.5% in 2021. The 2024 reading reverses that progress: women’s ownership fell by 10.1 percentage points and men’s by 9.4, leaving women below their 2017 level (35.8%) and men below their 2017 and 2021 levels (64.6% and 62.9%).
The source data do not say why ownership fell, and this note does not attempt to. The figures come from the Global Findex survey, which asks a sample of adults whether they have an account or have used mobile money in the past 12 months. Survey-based estimates carry sampling error, so the size of the fall should be read with some caution, and the 2021 and 2024 rounds should be checked for comparability before drawing firm conclusions.
For policy, the gap matters because an account is the entry point to savings, remittances, and government and social-protection payments. With only one woman in three holding one, digital payment programmes risk reaching men more readily than women, and any strategy for financial inclusion needs to track women’s access as a separate target.
Source: Global Findex Database, World Bank, via World Bank WDI (FX.OWN.TOTL.FE.ZS and FX.OWN.TOTL.MA.ZS).