Life expectancy increasing

Life expectancy at birth increased to 72 years last year in Bangladesh from 71.6 years in 2016, according to a survey of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).

For women, life expectancy increased to 73.5 years in 2017 from 72.9 years in 2016, says the survey, titled “Bangladesh Sample Vital Statistics 2017”.

However, in comparison to women, life expectancy of men increased a little between 2017 and 2016. In 2017, men's life expectancy was 70.6 years whereas it was 70.3 years in 2016.

The survey report was inaugurated at the BBS Building at Agargaon in Dhaka yesterday.

Emeritus scientist of icddr,b, Dr Abdur Razzaque said mothers have become more aware in taking care of their children. “They [mothers] ensure regular vaccination of their babies. As a result, child mortality rate has reduced over the years. This is the main reason behind increment of life expectancy.”

Mentioning that female life expectancy was lower in the past, he said daughters were not given proper care at early age; that is why it was lower. “But time has changed now; incidents of discrimination between male and female children have reduced, which has increased their life expectancy.”

Regarding the difference between male and female life expectancy, he said due to hazardous jobs and accidents, men's average life expectancy has reduced.

The survey was conducted last year, and data was collected from 295,175 households in 2,012 sample areas. About 627,068 males and 625,513 females participated in the survey.

Presenting the survey report, AKM Ashraful Haque, project director of Monitoring the Situation of Vital Statistics Project of the BBS, said women of the country are still dominated by their male counterparts, which has been reflected by 85.8 percent of families having men as the head of the house, in 2017.

The rate was 88.4 in 2013, which shows a moderate decline over the last five years, he said.

The survey findings on adult literacy rate for population aged over 15 years has shown urban residents to be nearly 24 percent more likely than their rural counterparts to be literate.

The use of contraceptives increased moderately to 62.5 percent last year, which demonstrates a moderate increase of 0.2 percent from 2016.

Urban women are more likely to adopt contraceptives than their rural counterparts, with their numbers standing at 66.3 percent and 59.4 percent respectively.

Neonatal mortality rate fell from 20 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2013, to 17 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2017.

Under-five mortality rate also decreased to 31 per 1,000 live births from 41 in 2013.

Ashraful said maternal mortality ratio has shown a consistent fall over the last five years, from 1.97 maternal deaths per 1,000 live births in 2013 to 1.72 in 2017.

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal inaugurated the publication.

He said if the country continues to make progress at the current pace, it will emerge as a developed country in 2041.