Bangladesh is a South Asian country. Located on the north coast of the Gulf of Bengal, it covers the terminal section of the Ganges and Bramaputra rivers. It has an area of 144 000 km2. It borders Myanmar, in a narrow strip to the southeast, and the rest of the land border (east, north and west) is made with India. The most important cities are Dhaka, the capital, with 14,251 000 residents (2009), Chittagong (4 816 000 residents) (2009), Khulna (1,636,000 residents) (2009) and Rajshai (853,000 residents) (2009).
Bangladesh’s economy is based on agriculture, a sector that still employs most of the active population. The main products grown are rice, sugar cane, wheat, jute, bananas, some vegetables, condiments and spices, mango, pineapple and tea. In terms of energy resources, natural gas and oil are exploited. Clothing is the country’s main export and is destined, predominantly, to Western Europe and the USA. The World Bank, the USA and Japan have offered very important economic aid to the country. Bangladesh’s main trading partners are the United States of America, Japan, India and China.
Environmental indicator: the value of carbon dioxide emissions, per capita(metric tons, 1999), is 0.2.
Population
The population of Bangladesh is 161 000 000 residents (est. 2012), which corresponds to a density of 1033.5 residents/km 2 , one of the highest in the world. The birth and death rates are, in 2012, 22.5% and 5.71%. Average life expectancy reaches 70.06 years. The value of the Human Development Index (HDI) is 0.469 and the value of the Gender-adjusted Development Index (IDG) is 0.524 (2006). It is estimated that in 2025 the population will reach 177 million individuals. Bangladeshi natives make up 98% of the total population and the remaining 2% are spread across various ethnicities. The most important religions are Islam (87%) and Hinduism (12%). The official language is Bengali.
History
Between 1947 and 1971, the country was designated East Pakistan, but in 1971 it became an independent republic, after the destruction caused by the war against Pakistani rule. Bangladesh currently has a democratic, multi-party government, in which the prime minister rules with a parliament.
A natural catastrophe shook the country on December 26, 2004. On that day, there was the biggest earthquake in recent times (8.9 degrees on the Richter scale) with an epicenter off the Indonesian island of Samatra. This earthquake originated earthquakes that hit the coast of several Southeast Asian countries, such as Sri Lanka, the most affected, followed by Indonesia itself, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Maldives and Bangladesh, causing thousands of deaths and displaced people. For Bangladesh democracy and rights, please check homeagerly.
Countryaah.com: Offers a full list of airports in the country of Bangladesh, sorted by city location and acronyms.
Abbreviationfinder.org: Provides most commonly used abbreviations and initials containing the country name of Bangladesh. Listed by popularity.
1UpTravel.com – Maps of Bangladesh
Browse a collection of city and country maps of Bangladesh, a southern Asian country, bordering the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and India.
