In 2024, 37.3% of people in Bangladesh used safely managed sanitation services, up from 11.5% in 2000. That is more than a threefold rise in 24 years, yet about 63% of the population still lacks a toilet whose waste is safely contained, emptied and treated or disposed of.
37.3%
People using safely managed sanitation services, Bangladesh, 2024.
Progress has been steady rather than sudden: the share passed 20% around 2011, 30% around 2019 and has been rising by roughly one to one and a half percentage points a year since. At that pace, universal safely managed sanitation is decades away.
“Safely managed” is the highest rung of the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme ladder. A household latrine is not enough: the toilet must not be shared with other households, and the waste must be safely handled all the way from the pit or tank to disposal. Many households that count as having basic sanitation fall short on this last step, which matters because untreated faecal waste can contaminate water and spread diarrhoeal disease.
For policy, the figures point to faecal sludge management as much as latrine coverage: emptying services, treatment plants and enforcement in dense towns and informal settlements.
Caveat: these are modelled estimates from household surveys and censuses, not annual counts.
Source: WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP), via World Bank WDI (SH.STA.SMSS.ZS).