RURAL BANGLADESH - PreventionWeb

Socioeconomic Profiles of WFP Operational Areas and Beneficiaries
Table 2: Marital status of Household head
Marital Status of Household head
Not married
Married
Divorced
Widowed
Separeted
Total
Hindus form a minority.
N %
94 3.5
2436 91.5
9 .3
110 4.1
12 .5
2661 100.0
Frequency
300
200
100
0
0
24
Divorce and separation rates are low in rural
Bangladesh and only about 3.5 percent of
household heads are single. In the study
population, 85 percent of households are
Muslim, 5.5 percent are Hindu, nine percent
are Buddhist, and one percent is Christian.
The high Buddhist percentages reflect their
majority status in the Chittagong Hill Tracts
(51 percent are Buddhist), although
Muslims (41 percent) now make up a
significant minority following decades of
Bengali in-migration; Muslims are
predominant in all other regions, where
Ethnicity has a distinct regional dimension in Bangladesh. In the Chittagong Hill Tracts,
approximately 45 percent of all households are now ethnically Bengali; the largest Jumma
groups include the Chakma (28 percent), Marma (19.4 percent), Bawm (four percent),
Tripura (1.6 percent), and Murang (1.6 percent). The vast majority (more than 99 percent) of
the households living in all of the other study regions are ethnically Bengali.
The mean age of household
heads is 43 years while the
median age is 40 years; the
age distribution is skewed
toward older heads of
household (Figure 2).
Almost half (47 percent) of
all household heads are
forty years of age and
above. Female household
heads tend to be older (46
years old on average)
compared to their male
counterparts (43 years old),
a difference that is
significant at one percent
level of significance.
Figure 2: Age distribution of household heads
20
Histogram
40
60
Age of Household head
1.1.3 General Household and Individual Characteristics
Mean = 42.86
Std. Dev. = 13.944
N = 2,661
Households tend to be larger in the Coastal zone and the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Mean
household size varies from 4.2 individuals in the Drought region to 5.4 in the Coastal region
while the median household size is five for Coastal region and Chittagong Hill Tracts and
four for all other survey regions. Female-headed households are significantly smaller in
number than the male-headed households – female-headed households average only three
household members in comparison to almost five household members in male-headed
80
100