56% population aged 5 or above use cell phone

Only 55.89 per cent of the total population aged five or above use mobile phones, according to the preliminary reports of the first digital “Census and Household Census 2022” by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).

Internet users are 30.68 per cent of the same age limit, according to the report.

Some 66.53 per cent male and 45.53 per cent female use mobile phones in the country, while 38.02 per cent male and 23.52 per cent female use internet, according to the census report.

The census report was released during a program at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital on Wednesday.

Dilder Hossain, Project Director of BBS, highlighted various aspects of the report while speaker of Jatiya Sangsad Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, Planning Minister MA Mannan, State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain, State Minister for Planning Shamsul Alam, among others, were present.

According the report, Dhaka has the highest mobile users and internet users of 5 years of age or more amounting to 62.02 per cent and 40.41 per cent respectively and Sylhet was counted for the lowest mobile users with 47.55 per cent stake and lowest 17.67 per cent internet users in Rangpur.

However, the report said 72.31 per cent of the population aged 18 or above use mobile phones, while the internet users are 37.01 per cent.

According to the census, the population of Bangladesh is now 16,51,58,616. The male population is 8.17 Crore while the female population is 8.33 Crore.

The census and household enumeration began on June 15 across the country and continued till June 28.

In 2011, the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics conducted a national census in Bangladesh, which provided a provisional estimate of the total population of the country as 142,319,000. The first population census of Bangladesh was taken in February, 1974.