The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) was established on August 26, 1974 by the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman by merging the then four statistical agencies, namely the Bureau of Statistics under the Planning Commission, the Bureau of Agriculture Statistics, the Agriculture Census Commission under the Ministry of Agriculture and the Population Census Commission under the Ministry of Home Affairs. BBS, the National Statistical Organization (NSO), is mandated for collecting, compiling, analyzing, and disseminating statistics on various sectors including economy, demography, education, health, trade, domestic product, national accounts and so on for public use. Presently, BBS operates under the Statistics Act, 2013.

The population and housing census is regarded as the most significant and gigantic statistical activity in most countries of the world including Bangladesh. According to the United Nations Guidelines, “A population census is the total process of collecting, compiling, evaluating, disseminating and analyzing demographic, economic and social data at the smallest geographic level pertaining, at a specified time, to all persons in a country or a well-delimited part of a country.” The Population and Housing Census consists in mainly two parts:

(1) The Population Census, which provides socio-economic and demographic information on every person living in a country at a point of time, down to the smallest geographical/ administrative unit;

(2) The Housing Census, which provides data on all dwelling units prevailing in a country, their conditions and facilities available, down to the smallest geographical/ administrative unit.