Europeans began to set up trading posts in the area of Bangladesh in the 16th century; eventually the British came to dominate the region and it became part of British India. In 1947, West Pakistan and East Bengal (both primarily Muslim) separated from India (largely Hindu) and jointly became the new country of Pakistan. East Bengal became East Pakistan in 1955, but the awkward arrangement of a two-part country with its territorial units separated by 1,600 km left the Bengalis marginalized and dissatisfied. East Pakistan seceded from its union with West Pakistan in 1971 and was renamed Bangladesh. A military-backed, emergency caretaker regime suspended parliamentary elections planned for January 2007 in an effort to reform the political system and root out corruption. In contrast to the strikes and violent street rallies that had marked Bangladeshi politics in previous years, the parliamentary elections finally held in late December 2008 were mostly peaceful. Sheikh HASINA Wajed was reappointed prime minister. About a third of this extremely poor country floods annually during the monsoon rainy season, hampering economic development.

Southern Asia, bordering the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and India

24 00 N, 90 00 E

Asia

slightly smaller than Iowa

580 km

tropical; mild winter (October to March); hot, humid summer (March to June); humid, warm rainy monsoon (June to October)

mostly flat alluvial plain; hilly in southeast

natural gas, arable land, timber, coal

47,250 sq km (2003)

1,210.6 cu km (1999)

droughts; cyclones; much of the country routinely inundated during the summer monsoon season

many people are landless and forced to live on and cultivate flood-prone land; waterborne diseases prevalent in surface water; water pollution, especially of fishing areas, results from the use of commercial pesticides; ground water contaminated by naturally occurring arsenic; intermittent water shortages because of falling water tables in the northern and central parts of the country; soil degradation and erosion; deforestation; severe overpopulation

most of the country is situated on deltas of large rivers flowing from the Himalayas: the Ganges unites with the Jamuna (main channel of the Brahmaputra) and later joins the Meghna to eventually empty into the Bay of Bengal

156,050,883 (July 2009 est.)

1.292% (2009 est.)

24.68 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)

9.23 deaths/1,000 population (July 2009 est.)

-2.53 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.)

2.74 children born/woman (2009 est.)

less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

12,000 (2007 est.)

fewer than 500 (2007 est.)

Bengali 98%, other 2% (includes tribal groups, non-Bengali Muslims) (1998)

Muslim 83%, Hindu 16%, other 1% (1998)

Bangla (official, also known as Bengali), English

2.7% of GDP (2005)

parliamentary democracy

6 divisions; Barisal, Chittagong, Dhaka, Khulna, Rajshahi, Sylhet

16 December 1971 (from West Pakistan); note - 26 March 1971 is the date of independence from West Pakistan, 16 December 1971 is known as Victory Day and commemorates the official creation of the state of Bangladesh

Independence Day, 26 March (1971); note - 26 March 1971 is the date of independence from West Pakistan, 16 December 1971 is Victory Day and commemorates the official creation of the state of Bangladesh

4 November 1972; effective 16 December 1972; suspended following coup of 24 March 1982; restored 10 November 1986; amended many times

based on English common law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

18 years of age; universal

unicameral National Parliament or Jatiya Sangsad; 300 seats elected by popular vote from single territorial constituencies; members serve five-year terms

Supreme Court (the chief justices and other judges are appointed by the president)

Awami League or AL [Sheikh HASINA]; Bangladesh Communist Party or BCP [Manjurul A. KHAN]; Bangladesh Nationalist Party or BNP [Khaleda ZIA]; Islami Oikya Jote or IOJ [Mufti Fazlul Haq AMINI]; Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh or JIB [Matiur Rahman NIZAMI]; Jatiya Party or JP (Ershad faction) [Hussain Mohammad ERSHAD]; Jatiya Party (Manzur faction) [Naziur Rahman MANZUR]; Liberal Democratic Party or LDP [Badrudozza CHOWDHURY and Oli AHMED]

Advocacy to End Gender-based Violence through the MoWCA (Ministry of Women's and Children's Affairs)

ADB, ARF, BIMSTEC, C, CP, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC, MIGA, MINURCAT, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM, OIC, OPCW, SAARC, SACEP, UN, UNAMID, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMIT, UNOCI, UNOMIG, UNWTO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

green field with a large red disk shifted slightly to the hoist side of center; the red disk represents the rising sun and the sacrifice to achieve independence; the green field symbolizes the lush vegetation of Bangladesh

The economy has grown 5-6% per year since 1996 despite inefficient state-owned enterprises, delays in exploiting natural gas resources, insufficient power supplies, and slow implementation of economic reforms. Bangladesh remains a poor, overpopulated, and inefficiently-governed nation. Although more than half of GDP is generated through the service sector, nearly two-thirds of Bangladeshis are employed in the agriculture sector, with rice as the single-most-important product. Garment exports and remittances from Bangladeshis working overseas, mainly in the Middle East and East Asia, fuel economic growth. In 2008 Bangladesh pursued a monetary policy aimed at maintaining high employment, but created higher inflation in the process.

$224 billion (2008 est.)

$213.6 billion (2007)

$201.1 billion (2006)

$83.04 billion (2008 est.)

4.9% (2008 est.)

6.2% (2007 est.)

6.4% (2006 est.)

$1,500 (2008 est.)

$1,400 (2007 est.)

$1,300 (2006 est.)

70.86 million

2.5% (2008 est.)

2.5% (2007 est.)

45% (2004 est.)

33.2 (2005)

24.3% of GDP (2008 est.)

34.6% of GDP (2008 est.)

9.4% (2008 est.)

9.1% (2007 est.)

NA% (31 December 2008)

5% (31 December 2007)

NA% (31 December 2008)

16% (31 December 2007)

$NA (31 December 2008)

$8.444 billion (31 December 2007)

$NA (31 December 2008)

$32.35 billion (31 December 2007)

$NA (31 December 2008)

$40.1 billion (31 December 2007)

$6.793 billion (31 December 2007)

rice, jute, tea, wheat, sugarcane, potatoes, tobacco, pulses, oilseeds, spices, fruit; beef, milk, poultry

cotton textiles, jute, garments, tea processing, paper newsprint, cement, chemical fertilizer, light engineering, sugar

6.9% (2008 est.)

22.78 billion kWh (2007 est.)

21.37 billion kWh (2006 est.)

0 kWh (2007 est.)

0 kWh (2007 est.)

6,746 bbl/day (2007 est.)

89,940 bbl/day (2006 est.)

1,351 bbl/day (2005)

83,220 bbl/day (2005)

28 million bbl (1 January 2008 est.)

15.7 billion cu m (2007 est.)

15.7 billion cu m (2007 est.)

0 cu m (2007 est.)

0 cu m (2007 est.)

141.6 billion cu m (1 January 2008 est.)

$-55 million (2008 est.)

$13.97 billion (2008 est.)

garments, jute and jute goods, leather, frozen fish and seafood

US 23%, Germany 13%, UK 9.1%, France 5.5%, Belgium 4% (2007)

$20.17 billion (2008 est.)

machinery and equipment, chemicals, iron and steel, textiles, foodstuffs, petroleum products, cement

China 15%, India 14.3%, Kuwait 8.3%, Singapore 6.2%, Hong Kong 4.2% (2007)

$5.934 billion (31 December 2008 est.)

$21.72 billion (31 December 2008 est.)

$5.618 billion (2008 est.)

$104 million (2008 est.)

taka (BDT) per US dollar - 68.554 (2008 est.), 69.893 (2007), 69.031 (2006), 64.328 (2005), 59.513 (2004)

1.187 million (2007)

34.37 million (2007)

AM 15, FM 13, shortwave 2 (2006)

15 (1999)

.bd

1,440 (2008)

500,000 (2007)

17 (2008)

gas 2,597 km (2008)

8,370 km

Chittagong, Mongla Port

the International Maritime Bureau reports the territorial waters of Bangladesh as high risk for armed robbery against ships; numerous commercial vessels have been attacked both at anchor and while underway; crews have been robbed and stores or cargoes stolen

Bangladesh Defense Force: Bangladesh Army (Sena Bahini), Bangladesh Navy (Noh Bahini, BN), Bangladesh Air Force (Biman Bahini, BAF) (2009)

16 years of age for voluntary military service; 17 years of age for officers (both with parental consent); conscription legally possible in emergency, but has never been implemented (2008)

1.5% of GDP (2006)

discussions with India remain stalled to delimit a small section of river boundary, exchange territory for 51 small Bangladeshi exclaves in India and 111 small Indian exclaves in Bangladesh, allocate divided villages, and stop illegal cross-border trade, migration, violence, and transit of terrorists through the porous border; Bangladesh protests India's fencing and walling off high-traffic sections of the porous boundary; a joint Bangladesh-India boundary commission resurveyed and reconstructed 92 missing pillars in 2007; dispute with India over New Moore/South Talpatty/Purbasha Island in the Bay of Bengal deters maritime boundary delimitation; after 21 years, Bangladesh resumes talks with Burma on delimiting a maritime boundary

transit country for illegal drugs produced in neighboring countries