60 Fun Facts About Bangladesh

What is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh?

Its metro area of over 36 million people is often called the most densely populated urban area on Earth.

Bangladesh shares its only land borders with India and which other country?

It is otherwise almost entirely surrounded by India, and lies within a few dozen kilometres of Nepal, Bhutan and China.

With almost 176 million people, Bangladesh ranks where among the world's most populous countries?

All of them live in an area smaller than the US state of Florida.

Before its independence in 1971, what was Bangladesh known as?

It was separated from the western wing of the same country by more than 1,000 miles of Indian territory.

Bangladesh celebrates Victory Day on which date, marking the surrender that ended the 1971 war?

The Dhaka surrender remains the largest capitulation of armed personnel since World War II.

Why is the red disc on Bangladesh's flag placed slightly off-centre toward the hoist?

The 1971 wartime version did carry a yellow map of the country inside the disc; it was removed in 1972.

Which Nobel laureate wrote "Amar Sonar Bangla", the national anthem of Bangladesh?

He is the only person to have written the anthems of two countries, since he also wrote India's.

Which is the national sport of Bangladesh, even though cricket is far more popular?

Known locally as ha-du-du, it received official status in 1972, the year after independence.

Which fish is the national fish of Bangladesh, with 97% of the world's supply caught there?

It is a herring relative, usually eaten with mustard, and was granted Geographical Indication status in 2017.

Which flower is the national flower of Bangladesh (and also of Sri Lanka)?

It grows wild across the country's ponds and flooded fields during the monsoon.

Which is the national animal of Bangladesh?

Tigers in the mangrove delta are the smallest on record; adult females there weigh only 75-80 kg.

The oriental magpie-robin, known locally as the doyel, is Bangladesh's national what?

A doyel monument stands in Dhaka near the university, and the bird appears on the two-taka coin.

Bangladesh contains most of which forest, the largest mangrove forest in the world?

Its Bangladeshi part is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to tigers, saltwater crocodiles and fishing cats.

Bangladesh has how many trans-boundary rivers, the most of any nation-state?

Nearly all of them enter from India, which makes water sharing a permanent political headache.

Which three great rivers meet to form the delta that makes up most of Bangladesh?

The Ganges is called the Padma once it enters Bangladesh, and the Brahmaputra's main channel is the Jamuna.

Most of Bangladesh lies less than how far above sea level?

A one-metre rise in sea level would flood roughly a tenth of the country.

Bangladesh has never recorded an air temperature below what?

The record low is 1.1 °C at Dinajpur in 1905; the country straddles the Tropic of Cancer.

Cox's Bazar Beach, at about 120 km, is the longest natural sea beach on which continent?

Worldwide it ranks fifth, behind beaches in Brazil, Texas and two in Australia.

Which 1970 storm, the deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded, killed up to half a million in the Ganges Delta?

Anger at the slow relief effort from the central government fed the independence movement the following year.

Language Movement Day remembers students killed in 1952 for demanding Bengali instead of which language?

Police fired on student demonstrators at Dhaka University on that day in 1952.

UNESCO adopted 21 February, the day Bangladesh honours its 1952 martyrs, as what worldwide observance in 1999?

The decision came in November 1999 in tribute to ethnolinguistic rights everywhere.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's founding leader, is honoured with which title meaning "Friend of Bengal"?

He was assassinated with most of his family in a 1975 coup; his daughter Sheikh Hasina later became the longest-serving prime minister.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's 7 March 1971 speech is listed on which UNESCO register?

It rallied Bengalis toward independence weeks before Operation Searchlight.

Which 1757 battle began British colonial rule over Bengal?

The Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah was defeated by the East India Company under Robert Clive.

Under the Mughals, Bengal was famous worldwide as a producer of which luxury cotton fabric?

Dhaka's muslin was so fine it was nicknamed "woven air"; the industry collapsed under British rule.

Jamdani, the fine cotton textile woven near Dhaka, was recognised by UNESCO in 2013 as what?

It is still known as Dhakai after the city, and woven by hand on the banks of the Shitalakshya River.

Muhammad Yunus won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for pioneering what?

His lending experiment began in 1976 in the village of Jobra; he later led Bangladesh's interim government in 2024.

Which bank, founded by Muhammad Yunus, shared his 2006 Nobel Peace Prize?

It lends tiny sums without collateral, mostly to rural women, and inspired copies in about 100 countries.

Which American architect designed Bangladesh's national parliament building in Dhaka?

It was commissioned for the Pakistani parliament in the 1960s and finished in 1982, eight years after Kahn's death.

Bangladesh's Sixty Dome Mosque in Bagerhat, a World Heritage Site, actually has how many domes?

The name refers to its sixty stone columns; it was built by the saint-general Khan Jahan Ali in the 15th century.

Somapura Mahavihara at Paharpur was a great monastery of which religion?

Built by the Pala kings in the 8th century, it was among the largest monasteries in South Asia.

Bangladesh's currency, the taka, replaced which currency at par in March 1972?

During the war, nationalists stamped Pakistani notes with "BANGLA DESH" in protest.

Bangladesh is the world's second-largest exporter of what?

Only China ships more clothing; the industry earned about $50 billion in 2024.

Bengali New Year, Pohela Boishakh, is celebrated in Bangladesh on which date?

The Bangla calendar traces back to Mughal Emperor Akbar, who wanted a tax year that matched the harvest.

Which Mughal emperor introduced the Bengali calendar, timing the tax year to the harvest?

His astronomer Fathullah Shirazi blended the lunar Islamic and solar Hindu calendars into the harvest calendar.

Bangladesh's national cricket team caused a famous World Cup upset in 1999 by beating which team?

It helped speed their promotion to Test status the following year.

Bangladesh became the 10th Test-playing nation in 2000 and played its first Test against which team?

Their first Test win took until 2005, against Zimbabwe, after a record 21 straight defeats.

Which Bangladeshi all-rounder captained the first Test win over England in 2016?

He spent years ranked the world's top all-rounder and even served as an MP.

In 2020 Bangladesh's youth cricketers won the country's first global title. Which tournament?

They beat India in the final; the seniors' best has been a 2015 World Cup quarter-final.

Which city is Bangladesh's second largest and its busiest port?

Officially Chattogram, it sits on the Karnaphuli River and appeared on Ptolemy's ancient world map.

A Greek ship stranded by a 1960 cyclone spawned which huge industry at Sitakunda?

Recycled steel from the yards now covers about a fifth of Bangladesh's needs.

Which northeastern Bangladeshi city is known for its tea plantations and the shrine of Shah Jalal?

A large share of Britain's Bangladeshi community traces its roots to the region.

Which Bangladeshi bridge, opened in 2022, has the deepest piles of any bridge in the world at 127 m?

It is 6.15 km long and was built without the World Bank, which withdrew over corruption allegations.

Bangladesh's first satellite, launched in 2018, was the first payload for which rocket variant?

The launch made Bangladesh the 57th country to operate its own satellite.

Which country's persecuted Rohingya minority has fled to Bangladesh in numbers over 700,000 since 2017?

The camps around Cox's Bazar form one of the largest refugee settlements in the world.

Dhaka was the Mughal capital of Bengal for 75 years and was renamed in honour of which emperor?

As Jahangirnagar it became the hub of the fine-cotton trade and one of the richest cities on Earth.

Pari Bibi, whose death halted Dhaka's Lalbagh Fort, was which Mughal governor's daughter?

He took the death as a bad omen and halted the work; her tomb still stands inside the fort.

Ahsan Manzil, the Pink Palace on the Buriganga River, was the seat of which title-holders?

The Indo-Saracenic building was restored in the 1990s and is now a museum.

Which Bangladeshi poet, author of "Bidrohi" ("The Rebel"), is the country's national poet?

Born in British India, he was brought to Dhaka in 1972 and granted citizenship in 1976.

Which curdled-milk sweet is among the classic Bengali sweets listed alongside chomchom and mishti doi?

Cottage cheese balls boiled in syrup; the dish is claimed by both Bangladesh and India's West Bengal.

Panch phoron, the famous Bengali spice blend, is made of how many whole spices?

Typically fenugreek, nigella, cumin, black mustard and fennel, fried whole in oil.

Which Bangladeshi city hosts Kaptai Lake, the country's largest artificial lake?

The dam on the Karnaphuli River displaced tens of thousands of indigenous Chakma people in the 1960s.

Into how many divisions is Bangladesh administratively divided?

Below the divisions sit 64 districts, 497 upazilas and 4,599 union councils.

What is the highest point in Bangladesh, at 1,064 metres near the Myanmar border?

Keokradong was long claimed as the highest peak before surveys pointed to Saka Haphong in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Which dictator ruled Bangladesh through the 1980s until a mass uprising in 1990?

His decade brought infrastructure, privatisation and the declaration of Islam as the state religion.

On what date in 2024 was Sheikh Hasina forced to resign and flee to India?

The July Uprising ended her run of four consecutive terms; Muhammad Yunus then led an interim government as Chief Adviser.

Which political organisation did Ziaur Rahman found on 1 September 1978?

He also set in motion the creation of SAARC before his assassination in 1981; the party is now led by his son Tarique.

Who proclaimed himself the first ruler of a united 'Bangala' in 1342?

Fakhruddin Mubarak Shah had established the independent Bengal Sultanate a year earlier, in 1341.

How many of East Pakistan's 169 National Assembly seats did the Awami League win in December 1970?

The refusal to hand over power after that landslide led directly to the 1971 crackdown and Liberation War.

The Awami League leader's 1966 programme for federal parliamentary democracy was known as what?

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's plan built on the 1952 language movement and East Pakistan's economic grievances.