Bangladesh had 0.72 physicians per 1,000 people in 2023, about double the 0.35 recorded in 2010. Hospital beds rose by roughly 70% over the same period, from 0.54 to 0.92 per 1,000 people in 2023.
0.35 → 0.72
Physicians per 1,000 people in Bangladesh, 2010 to 2023.
The rise in doctors has been steady: 0.48 in 2015, 0.63 in 2019 and 0.72 in both 2022 and 2023. Beds followed a similar path to 1.01 per 1,000 in 2022, before the 2023 figure of 0.92. Whether that dip reflects real change or a revised count is not clear from the series.
Even after the gains, there are still fewer than one doctor and fewer than one hospital bed for every 1,000 people. National averages also hide how staff and facilities are spread between cities and rural areas, and between public and private providers; neither series shows that. Doctors are only one part of the health workforce, since nurses and midwives are counted separately.
For policy, the figures show that the supply of doctors and beds per person has grown, but they say nothing about quality, distribution or whether patients can afford care. Those questions need facility-level and household survey data.
Source: WHO and OECD, Global Health Workforce Statistics (physicians); WHO (hospital beds), via World Bank WDI (SH.MED.PHYS.ZS, SH.MED.BEDS.ZS). Figures are as reported by countries and may be modelled or supplemented estimates.