The country's population had reached at 156.26 million including 81.1 million males and 75.2 million females, an official in population welfare ministry said on Saturday. The official said that female population of reproductive age (15-49 years) was 39.2 million, which was 52.1 percent of the total female population.
The source said that population ministry was actively pursuing awareness campaign and rise in females mean age at marriage from 21.7 years in 1991 to 23.4 years was a testament to its success. Thanks to the ministry's effective policies the fertility rate is down to 4.0 while growth rate to 1.8 cent per year.
"The total fertility rate per woman declined from 6.0 in 1984 to 4.0 in 2005 thereby the short term goal of reduction in fertility to 4 births per women by 2004 has been achieved", the source said. The source said that maternal mortality declined from 500 in 1991 to 350-400 per 100,000 life births in 2005.
Because of the better health services of the ministry, the official said life expectancy of females had risen to 66 from 61 years in 1991, while for males life expectancy was 64 years. Similarly, the official said that contraceptive prevalence rate had risen from 11.8 in 1991 to 36.0.
The source said government was also endeavouring to encourage public-private partnership and expressed the hope that the projects would help a great deal to achieve desired results.
The official said the credit also went to the media as it had adopted active role in creating awareness about implications of over-population, especially at the grassroots level, to expedite socio-economic development of the country.