UNFPA report says
Bangladesh population now 162.2m

Bangladesh's present population is 162.2 million (16.22 crore) and may rise to 222.5 million by 2050 at the current growth rate of 1.4 per cent, according to the latest count by UN agency UNFPA, reports UNB.

Combined with this demographic factor of overpopulation, climate change may reverse the progress on the UN-set Millennium Development Goals through the climate-driven water scarcity, intense tropical storms, floods, loss of glacial meltwater for irrigated agriculture, changes in food availability and possible health crisis, the UNFPA forewarned in its report.

The 2009 State of Population Report entitled 'Facing a changing world: women, population and climate' was published Wednesday in Dhaka and in all the capitals of the world.

UNFPA Representative Arthur Erken, Executive Director of Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies Dr Atiq Rahman, DGFP Director General Mohammad Abdul Qayyum, former adviser to caretaker government Rasheda K Chowdhury and Health and Family Welfare Ministry Secretary Shaikh Altaf Ali were present on the occasion.

The United Nations Population Fund report says, "Family planning, reproductive healthcare and gender relations could influence the future course of climate change and affect how humanity adapts to rising seas, worsening storms and severe droughts."