Bangladesh has 16.50 lakh indigenous people

Bangladesh is currently home to 16,50,160 indigenous people, according to the findings of the Population and Housing Census 2022, published by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) on Wednesday.

There are 8,25,408 females and 8,24,751 males in those communities, and their number has increased by 64,019 or 4.03 per cent in eleven years. As per the last census in 2011, the number of indigenous people was 15,86,141.

The majority of the indigenous people – 9, 20, 217 or 55.76 per cent – live in three hilly districts of Chattogram. A total of 9, 20, 217 people, which is 55.76 % of total indigenous population live in three districts in Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Meanwhile, the number of indigenous people living in the Chattogram division is 9,90,860.

Rajshahi division is home to 2,44,592 indigenous people, second highest among the country’s divisions. It is followed by Sylhet with 1,36,594, Rangpur with 91, 070, Dhaka with 82,311, Mymensingh with 61, 559, Khulna with 38,993 and Barishal with 4,181 people.

Top 5 indigenous groups by population

The latest BBS census recorded a total of 51 indigenous communities in Bangladesh. Among those, 4,83,299 people are Chakma, the indigenous group with the highest population in the country.

Marma ranked second with 2,24,261 people, followed by Tripura 1,56,578, Santal 1,29,049 and Orao 85,846 people.

The smallest indigenous group in the country by population is Vil, with only 95 members left in the community. Meanwhile, the Gurkha community has only 100 people, followed by Hoe 223, Kharwar 312 and Lushai 380.