Bangladesh's births per woman have fallen by two-thirds since 1970
Average births per woman (total fertility rate), Bangladesh and world, 1960–2024, UN estimates.
- 1. The world has already passed peak child
- 2. Japan's median age is more than three times Niger's
- 3. South Korea now has a quarter of its 1971 births
- 4. China's population is projected to more than halve by 2100
- 5. Japan now has over 100,000 centenarians, up from 153
- 6. Japan has 9 million empty homes: one in seven
- 7. One in ten in Japan will be foreign by 2070
- 8. Japan's foreign residents have doubled since 2012, passing 4 million
- 9. Jakarta, not Tokyo, is the world's largest city
- 10. Two in three newly licensed UK doctors qualified abroad
- 11. Iran dropped from top refugee host to fifth in 2025
- 12. More Christians live in sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else
- 13. Two in three people live where fertility is below replacement
- 14. Japan's births fell below half their 1899 level
- 15. Brazil now has more people over 65 than Germany
- 16. Egypt has more asylum seekers than Germany, Spain and Italy
- 17. 34 countries and territories are past their population peak
- 18. Chile's fertility rate fell below Italy's and Japan's
- 19. Nigeria now has almost 25 million more people than Brazil
- 20. Thailand's births have fallen below its deaths
- 21. Women hold at least half the seats in seven parliaments
- 22. Child marriage in South Asia has nearly halved since 2005
- 23. Six in ten child deaths now happen in sub-Saharan Africa
- 24. Argentina's teen birth rate fell 60% in ten years
- 25. Chad rose from 15th to 6th among refugee hosts
- 26. Sri Lanka's population has shrunk three years in a row
- 27. Bangladesh's births per woman have fallen by two-thirds since 1970
- 28. Türkiye overtook France in hosting foreign students
Births per woman in Bangladesh, 1970 vs 2024: from 6.84 to 2.14.
The year Bangladesh fell below the world average; in 2024 it was 2.14 vs the world's 2.19.
About the level at which a population just replaces itself: Bangladesh is now right at it, so its growth will slow.
the numbers & method
| Year | Bangladesh | World |
|---|---|---|
| 1960 | 6.74 | 4.69 |
| 1961 | 6.78 | 4.56 |
| 1962 | 6.81 | 5.02 |
| 1963 | 6.80 | 5.31 |
| 1964 | 6.79 | 5.13 |
| 1965 | 6.77 | 5.08 |
| 1966 | 6.77 | 4.97 |
| 1967 | 6.79 | 4.87 |
| 1968 | 6.79 | 4.98 |
| 1969 | 6.81 | 4.88 |
| 1970 | 6.84 | 4.84 |
| 1971 | 6.83 | 4.69 |
| 1972 | 6.82 | 4.55 |
| 1973 | 6.80 | 4.42 |
| 1974 | 6.78 | 4.26 |
| 1975 | 6.73 | 4.07 |
| 1976 | 6.66 | 3.97 |
| 1977 | 6.58 | 3.84 |
| 1978 | 6.51 | 3.77 |
| 1979 | 6.42 | 3.76 |
| 1980 | 6.33 | 3.73 |
| 1981 | 6.24 | 3.71 |
| 1982 | 6.12 | 3.72 |
| 1983 | 5.91 | 3.59 |
| 1984 | 5.73 | 3.57 |
| 1985 | 5.54 | 3.53 |
| 1986 | 5.30 | 3.51 |
| 1987 | 5.08 | 3.48 |
| 1988 | 4.85 | 3.39 |
| 1989 | 4.70 | 3.35 |
| 1990 | 4.51 | 3.31 |
| 1991 | 4.26 | 3.13 |
| 1992 | 4.03 | 3.04 |
| 1993 | 3.83 | 2.97 |
| 1994 | 3.74 | 2.92 |
| 1995 | 3.59 | 2.87 |
| 1996 | 3.51 | 2.82 |
| 1997 | 3.50 | 2.78 |
| 1998 | 3.43 | 2.75 |
| 1999 | 3.36 | 2.72 |
| 2000 | 3.28 | 2.73 |
| 2001 | 3.20 | 2.69 |
| 2002 | 3.13 | 2.66 |
| 2003 | 3.03 | 2.64 |
| 2004 | 2.94 | 2.63 |
| 2005 | 2.85 | 2.61 |
| 2006 | 2.76 | 2.61 |
| 2007 | 2.67 | 2.60 |
| 2008 | 2.58 | 2.60 |
| 2009 | 2.48 | 2.59 |
| 2010 | 2.38 | 2.57 |
| 2011 | 2.31 | 2.55 |
| 2012 | 2.26 | 2.56 |
| 2013 | 2.25 | 2.52 |
| 2014 | 2.23 | 2.52 |
| 2015 | 2.23 | 2.49 |
| 2016 | 2.23 | 2.49 |
| 2017 | 2.21 | 2.46 |
| 2018 | 2.19 | 2.39 |
| 2019 | 2.18 | 2.35 |
| 2020 | 2.18 | 2.28 |
| 2021 | 2.17 | 2.25 |
| 2022 | 2.18 | 2.22 |
| 2023 | 2.16 | 2.20 |
| 2024 | 2.14 | 2.19 |
Claim types Estimate · Interpretation
Total fertility rate (births per woman), World Bank World Development Indicators SP.DYN.TFRT.IN (last updated 13 Jul 2026 for Bangladesh, 8 Oct 2026 for the world), read from the World Bank API; for Bangladesh and the world the series is UN DESA World Population Prospects 2024 (modelled estimates). Bangladesh: 1970 6.839 (peak), 2008 2.577, 2024 2.138. World: 1970 4.840, 2008 2.603, 2024 2.188. Derived by progrss: 2.138 ÷ 6.839 = 0.31, a fall of 69%; Bangladesh first below the world average in 2008 (2007: 2.666 vs 2.602). Bangladesh's own Sample Vital Registration System (BBS, SVRS 2022 report) gives a national rate of 2.04–2.05 for 2018–2021 and 2.20 for 2022: the two sources differ by up to 0.14 but agree Bangladesh is close to 2.1. The UN series has not gone below 2.1. Takeaway 3's last clause (slowing growth) is an interpretation. Licence: World Bank, CC BY 4.0.
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