The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) is the centralized official bureau in Bangladesh for collecting statistics on demographics, the economy, and other facts about the country and disseminating the information.

Although independent statistical programs had existed in the country before, they were often incomplete or produced inaccurate results, which led the Government of Bangladesh establishing an official bureau in August 1974, by merging four of the previous larger statistical agencies , the Bureau of Statistics, the Bureau of Agriculture Statistics, the Agriculture Census Commission and the Population Census Commission.

In July 1975, the Statistics Division was created and placed under the Ministry of Planning in order to control it administratively In 2002, the Statistics Division merged with Planning Commission and the burea is now controlled by the Ministry of Planning and office.

With its headquarters in Dhaka, the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, as of 2008, has 23 regional statistical offices and 489 Upazilla/Thana offices located in the 23 districts of Bangladesh.

Functions

BBS has seven functional wings:

• Population, demography and birth-death registration system

• Industry, trade and commerce, labor statistics and national income

• Agriculture statistics

• Industry statistics

• Research, training and sample survey

• Computer data processing and statistical cartography and

• Reproduction, documentation and publication.

Each wing is headed by a Director and is supported by other officers and staffs. To achieve the objectives of the Bureau, statistical officers have been posted at headquarters of former districts and at all upazilas of the country. District offices headed by Regional Statistical Officers, coordinate and supervise the field activities of upazila statistics offices and also undertake various sample surveys. At present, (2000 AD) there are 23 district and 460 upazila offices all over the country.

The main functions of BBS are to collect, compile, analyze, and publish statistics of all sectors of the economy to meet the needs of development planning, research, policy and decision making. The Bureau is also responsible for conducting statistical programs such as population census, agricultural census, census of manufacturing industries, census of establishments, and other national level surveys in such fields as labor force, demographic situation, agriculture, and household income and expenditure.

Publications

BBS regularly publishes the monthly Statistical Bulletin of Bangladesh, Economic Indicator of Bangladesh, and Economic Situation of Bangladesh. Its annual publications, include Statistical Year Book, Statistical Pocket Book, Agricultural Year Book, Upazila Statistics, and Foreign Trade Statistics. Its decennial publications are Census Bulletins and Reports, Population Census National Volume, Village Population Census for Districts, Reports on the Agricultural Census of Bangladesh and Census of Manufacturing Industries. In 1999 BBS published a Report on Survey of IT Resources of Bangladesh and Identification of Y2K Problem Areas jointly with Bangladesh Computer Council of the Ministry of Science and Technology. BBS also publishes many other subject-specific publications.