A post-enumeration check (PEC) conducted by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) has found that 365,472 economic units were excluded from the 2024 Economic Census.
The PEC—carried out across 352 sample areas in all eight divisions—shows an overall census coverage rate of 97.05 percent, leaving a net omission rate of 2.95 percent. The findings were released on Tuesday at a seminar at the BIDS office in Dhaka’s Agargaon.
The Economic Census had initially counted 11,877,364 economic units nationwide. The PEC review, however, estimates the true figure at 12,242,836—nearly 365,000 more and about 3 percent higher than the preliminary count.
According to the report, the highest omissions occurred in city corporation areas, particularly among informal and service-sector establishments where businesses frequently shift, close, or operate without registration.
The seminar was attended by BIDS Director General Prof. AK Enamul Haque, Statistics and Informatics Division Secretary Aleya Akhtar, Planning Division Secretary Shakil Akhtar, and Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) Director General Mizanur Rahman. BIDS Research Director Dr. Mohammad Yunus presented the PEC findings.
Informal, Temporary and Unregistered Units More Likely to Be Missed
The PEC report notes significant regional variations in omission rates, with city corporation areas showing the highest gaps due to high business mobility and the prevalence of unregistered or temporary structures.
Street vendors, small service providers, makeshift stalls and other informal units were the most likely to be overlooked.
In contrast, registered businesses—especially those with tax identification numbers—were almost fully captured in the census.
Beyond omissions, the PEC also documented notable inconsistencies between the census and PEC responses. These include mismatches in enterprise type (14%), activity classification (8%), ownership information (6%) and fire-safety details (5%).
The most substantial inconsistency was found in business registration information, where nearly one-third of cases showed conflicting data. BIDS attributed these variations to misunderstanding, unclear definitions and difficulty interpreting questions, rather than intentional misinformation.
No Signs of Systematic Bias, Errors Within Global Standards
The PEC found no evidence of deliberate bias or systemic flaws in the census process. The 2.95 percent net coverage error falls within international standards for national economic censuses, researchers said.
Even so, the report recommends strengthening supervisory mechanisms in urban areas, improving digital systems, increasing field-level training and enhancing efforts to capture information from informal and rapidly changing sectors.
Enumerators Faced Limited Training, Access Barriers
Planning Secretary and former Economic Census Project Director Shakil Akhtar said the accuracy of the census depends greatly on enumerators’ skills, training and ability to access establishments.
“Three to five days of training is not enough to master a large and complex census manual,” he said. He explained that enumerators often faced access restrictions in industrial zones, garment factories and sensitive establishments. In many cases, owners, management or security personnel were reluctant to provide information.
Researcher Yunus added that temporary enterprises have a much higher “move-in, move-out” rate than permanent ones. “A makeshift shop can disappear overnight. This high mobility is a major reason behind the coverage gap,” he said.
Findings Crucial for Policy and Investment Planning
Speakers at the seminar said the PEC results provide a more accurate picture of the country’s economic landscape. Although the omission rate is relatively low, they stressed that even small gaps matter for policymaking, regional development, investment planning and updating databases of micro and small enterprises.
They added that no country can achieve zero-omission coverage in an economic census, but the PEC insights will help improve future enumeration exercises.
The 2024 Economic Census was the fourth nationwide census of economic units, with the PEC jointly conducted by BIDS and the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.