DHAKA, Jan 29, 2025 (BSS) - The total number of economic units in the country stood at 11,877,364 at the time of the Economic Census 2024, according to the preliminary result of the census published today.

The figure encompasses all permanent establishments (6,288,214), temporary establishments (576,621), and economic household (5,012,529) operating across the country. 

Of these economic units, a significant portion falls within the service sector (91.23%), while others are distributed across manufacturing sector (8.77%).

Approximately 29.73% of the economic units are located in urban areas, with the remaining 70.27% situated in rural areas. 

These were revealed at the publication ceremony of the preliminary report of the Economic Census 2024 held at the auditorium of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) in the capital’s Agargaon area today.

Planning Adviser Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud spoke at the event as the chief guest while country’s renowned economist and chief of the taskforce on "Re-strategising the economy and mobilising resources for equitable and sustainable development" Dr KAS Murshid and Statistics and Informatics Division Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain spoke as special guests.

Presided over by BBS Director General Mohammad Mizanur Rahman, Project Director of the Economic Census 2024 SM Shakil Akhter gave the address of welcome.

Deputy Project Director Mizanur Rahman made a power-point presentation. Statistics Division Joint Secretary Dr Dipankar Roy moderated question-answer session.

Planning Adviser Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud said that the findings of the Economic Census 2024 would be useful for the trade bodies, experts, researchers, and various ministries and divisions.

Regarding the findings, he noted that the data of the census are very much consistent with the economic assumption.

Dr Mahmud noted that the rural areas are now gradually turning into as like the urban areas for which many works are now being diversified.

Turning to the healthy inflow of inward remittance, he said that the remittance growth is very good thanks to the hard-work and patriotism of the expatriate Bangladeshis while such inflow of remittance is also helping to infuse dynamism into the rural economy.

Eminent economist Dr KAS Murshid said that the results of this Economic Census 2024 are very broad highlighting data on rural and urban areas as well as on employments.

He hoped that the final report of the Economic Census 2024 would highlight the structural changes in the economy.

Statistics and Informatics Division Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain said that findings of this Economic Census would play an important role in building a new Bangladesh.    
The key findings of the census are: 

Total persons engaged (TPE): 2024: The result also shows that 30,761,034 persons are engaged in various non-farm economic activities in Bangladesh, where 25,630,298 are male, 5,128,677 are female and 2,059 are hijra. 

Out of the total, 23,715,582 (77.10%) persons are engaged in permanent establishments, 795,467 (2.58%) persons are engaged in temporary establishments and 6,249,985 (20.32%) persons are engaged in economic households. 

Expanding formal and informal sector: The provisional results of the 2024 Economic Census indicate that the total number of economic units in Bangladesh reached 11,877,364 during the census period, compared to 7,818,565 in 2013; 3,708,144 in 2001 & 2003, and 2,169,419 in 1986. 

The growth of economic units was 70.92% between 1986 and 2001-2003, 110.85% between 2001-2003 and 2013, and 51.91% between 2013 and 2024. 

Economic Census (EC) 2024 and 2013 covered premise based and floating economic activities operated by households as economic households. 

Increasing permanent establishments: It has been observed that the number of permanent establishments in Bangladesh has steadily increased over time. The number of permanent establishment was 2,991,238 in 2001& 2003 which has risen to 4,514,091 in 2013 and 6,288,214 in 2024. It shows that the growth in number (1,774,123) over the last eleven years is higher than that (1,522,853) occurred in the last ten years (2001 & 2003 to 2013). 

Facing problems in economic units: It is found that 85.84% of all units, which facing problems in operating business, reported that unavailability of capital is the main problem, which is 48.28% of the total problems Furthermore, 34.41% economic units reported that they are facing problems on getting easy loan to run their business smoothly which is 19.35% of total problems.

Expansion of household based economic activities: The findings of the Economic Census 2024 reveal that household based economic activities expansion is continuing over the last decade. The number of economic household is 50,12,529 in 2024 which was 28,21,571 in 2013 and 3,81,055 in 2001 & 2003. 

The definition of economic households remains same for 2013 and 2024 to contribute to this expansion. The growth of economic households was 640.46% during 2001 & 03 to 2013 and 77.65% during 2024 through 2013.

Number of Units increased both in urban and rural areas: In 2024, share of urban economic units is 3,531,203 (29.73%) and rural 8,346,161 (70.27%) whereas the share of urban economic units was 2,229,546 (28.52%) and rural 5,589,019 (71.48%) in 2013. 

Regional variations almost follow the same trend in economic activities: The findings show that at the division level, large variation still exists in economic activities. The highest number of economic units (3,209,850) was observed in Dhaka followed by Chattogram (2,079,951), Rajshahi (1,692,604), Khulna (1,518,134), Rangpur (1,361,423), Barishal (668,736) and Sylhet (555,034), Mymensingh (791,632). 

In 2013, Dhaka (2,541,033) was in the first position, followed by Chattogram (1,327,629), Rajshahi (1,160,669), Khulna (997,086), Rangpur (1,022,040) Barishal (368,129) and Sylhet (401,979).

The country's fourth Economic Census was conducted nationwide from December 10 to 26, 2024 utilising a fully digital system. The slogan of the Economic Census 2024 was "Orthonoitik Shumarite Tottho Din, Notun Bangladesh Binirmane Ongsho Nin".

The country's first Economic Census took place in 1986, followed by the second one held in 2001 and in 2003 in phases. The third Economic Census was conducted in 2013.