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On the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and India. South America. Slightly smaller than Indiana. Tropical and often hot and rainy, with mild winters.
Bangladesh was born in 1971 when Bengali East Pakistan seceded from its union with West Pakistan. About a third of this country floods every year during the monsoon rainy season.
Its full name is the People's Republic of Bangladesh. It is a parliamentary democracy
Figures unless otherwise stated are from the CIA Factbook.
Factbook: "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."
Estimated per capita GDP:
2008 $1,500
2007 $1,400
2006 $1,300
Unemployment rate for 2008 and 2007: 2.5%
Industries: cotton textiles, jute, garments, tea processing, paper newsprint, cement, chemical fertilizer, light engineering, sugar
For 2008: deaths 8.0, births: 28.86, down from 30.01 in 2005
Estimated for July 2008: 153.547 million, up from 144.3 million in 2005. Growth rate estimated for 2008: 2.022 percent per year.
Density estimated for 2005: 1,078 persons per square kilometer.
More leaving than arriving, a net loss of 0.65 persons per 1,000 population
Infant mortality estimated for 2008: 57.45, down from 62.2 in 2005 (deaths before the age of one year, per 1,000 live births).
Average life expectancy at birth estimated for 2008: 63.21 years, up from 62.0 in 2005.
SOURCES:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/
Copyright © 2008 by Frank E. Smitha. All rights reserved.