
Area: total: 144,000 sq km
land: 133,910 sq km
water: 10,090 sq km
Climate: tropical mild winter [October to March] hot, humid summer [March to June] humid, warm rainy monsoon [June to October]
Terrain: mostly flat alluvial plain hilly in southeast
Natural resources: natural gas, arable land, timber, coal
Population: 153,546,901 [July 2008 est.]
Age structure: 0-14 years: 33.4% [male 26,364,370/female 24,859,792]
15-64 years: 63.1% [male 49,412,903/female 47,468,013]
65 years and over: 3.5% [male 2,912,321/female 2,529,502] [2008 est.]
Nationality: noun: Bangladeshi[s]
adjective: Bangladeshi
Ethnic groups: Bengali 98%, other 2% [includes tribal groups, non-Bengali Muslims] [1998]
Languages: Bangla [official, also known as Bengali], English
Capital: name: Dhaka
geographic coordinates: 23 43 N, 90 24 E
time difference: UTC+6 [11 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time]
National holiday: 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
GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 19%
industry: 28.7%
services: 52.3% [2007 est.]
Labor force: 69.4 million
note: extensive export of labor to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Qatar, and Malaysia workers' remittances estimated at $4.8 billion in 2005-06. [2007 est.]
Budget: revenues: $6.796 billion
expenditures: $9.794 billion [2007 est.]
Agriculture - products: rice, jute, tea, wheat, sugarcane, potatoes, tobacco, pulses, oilseeds, spices, fruit beef, milk, poultry
Industries: cotton textiles, jute, garments, tea processing, paper newsprint, cement, chemical fertilizer, light engineering, sugar
Exports: $11.75 billion [2007 est.]
Exports - commodities: garments, jute and jute goods, leather, frozen fish and seafood
Exports - partners: US 25%, Germany 12.6%, UK 9.8%, France 5% [2006]
Imports: $16.03 billion [2007 est.]
Imports - commodities: machinery and equipment, chemicals, iron and steel, textiles, foodstuffs, petroleum products, cement
Imports - partners: China 17.7%, India 12.5%, Kuwait 7.9%, Singapore 5.5%, Hong Kong 4.1% [2006]
Currency (code): taka [BDT]
Exchange rates: taka per US dollar - 69.893 [2007], 69.031 [2006], 64.328 [2005], 59.513 [2004], 58.15 [2003]
Airports: 16 [2007]
Railways: total: 2,768 km
broad gauge: 946 km 1.676-m gauge
narrow gauge: 1,822 km 1.000-m gauge [2006]
Merchant marine: total: 41 ships [1000 GRT or over] 328,530 GRT/468,509 DWT
by type: bulk carrier 3, cargo 27, container 6, passenger/cargo 1, petroleum tanker 4
foreign-owned: 1 [China 1]
registered in other countries: 9 [Comoros 1, Honduras 1, Malta 3, Panama 1, Singapore 2, St Vincent and The Grenadines 1] [2007]
Ports and terminals: Chittagong, Mongla Port