Islam is the predominant religion. The sex ratio in Bangladesh is such that there are 106 men per 100 women. In urban areas there is a predominance of the male population, particularly in large towns. Bangladesh also is a country marked by a high level of international male out-migration. Therefore, in the rural areas there is a predominance of female population and the female-headed households.
Female illiteracy is higher in rural than in urban areas.
Most often, activities such as care of livestock and poultry, vegetable growing, post-harvest processing and preservation, usually done by women in the farm households, are considered uneconomic. This demonstrates the difficult development challenges confronting Bangladesh in human resource development. This illustrates that the human development gap is further aggravated by substantial gender disparities. A large majority of the households in Bangladesh depend upon agriculture and related activities like livestock rearing, fisheries and forestry. Despite their routine domestic work, women are very actively involved in agricultural production in Bangladesh.