Young people in Bangladesh want relationships, children and hopeful futures, yet financial and job insecurity are standing in the way, new UNFPA survey finds

One of the largest surveys of its kind offers a rare snapshot of what young people in Bangladesh, and across the world, hope for, and what they feel is holding them back

A new UNFPA Demographic Futures Survey of more than 108,000 internet-connected young adults across 73 countries and territories, including Bangladesh, offers a revealing insight into what young people today want from relationships, children and the future, and what they feel is standing in the way. 

The findings of the survey published in the Lives, Choices and Futures: What young people want and what shapes their decisions about relationships and parenthood report, challenge a familiar assumption that young people have stopped valuing family. They have not. Globally, a majority want to find a partner, marry and have children; marriage is cited as the ideal by two thirds of respondents. 

What shapes whether young adults feel ready to become parents is, above all, security: financial stability was rated important by 88 per cent, stable employment by 87 per cent, and emotional readiness by 85 per cent. Economic and housing constraints were the most common barrier to both partnership and parenthood.

Bangladesh's young people echo the global picture. Among the 1,417 young adults surveyed in the country, more than two thirds — 67.2 per cent — say they are deeply worried about conflict, economic insecurity and environmental risk, yet two thirds still feel positive about their own future. Their aspirations remain strong: among those in their late thirties without children, more than nine in ten say they still want them. The desire for family is nearly universal; what young people are navigating is not a change of heart, but a question of timing.

That timing is shaped by hard economic realities. The youth NEET rate (not in employment, education or training) stands at 22 per cent for those aged 15–29, and unemployment among the tertiary-educated reaches 27.8 per cent. With roughly two thirds of the population now of working age and a demographic dividend expected to last until around 2040, the stakes of getting this right are high.

For girls, another reality cuts across these aspirations. Almost half of women now aged 20 to 24 — 47.2 per cent — were married before their eighteenth birthday, and the share of adolescent girls aged 15–19 who are currently married has risen to 38.9 per cent. Nearly one in four girls aged 15–19 is already a mother or pregnant with her first child. Ensuring that girls stay in school, marry later and can reach youth-friendly health services is central to helping this generation realize the futures they describe.

"Young people in Bangladesh have not turned away from creating their families. They are asking for the freedom and the conditions to build the families they want," said Catherine Breen Kamkong, UNFPA Representative in Bangladesh. "That means decent work and opportunities for young people, and ensuring every girl can stay in school, prevent early marriage and early pregnancy and make her own choices. UNFPA is proud to support the Government of Bangladesh in placing the rights and choices of young people at the heart of its new National Population Policy." 

The findings land at a moment of national momentum. The Government of Bangladesh has launched a new, rights-based National Population Policy 2025 and a first-ever National Family Planning Strategy 2025–2030, shifting the frame to rights and choices. Recent data also underline the need for sustained investment: the 2025 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey records a total fertility rate of 2.4 and a decline in contraceptive prevalence to 58.2 per cent.

The report suggests that debates over fertility and demographic change may be asking too narrow a question: not whether young people value family life, but what conditions are needed to help them build the relationships, families and futures they want in a world fair and hopeful enough to let them.

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More findings from the Demographic Futures Survey report 

• More than two-thirds chose an ideal relationship that includes marriage.
• Top preconditions for parenthood: 88% financial security, 87% stable employment, 85% emotional readiness.
• 81% rated financial security as important for forming a partnership.
• 72% rated economic and housing constraints an important barrier to having children; 57% to forming a partnership.
• 80% identified the joy children bring as a key motivation, while government encouragement ranked among the lowest.
• Two-thirds feel positive about the future despite worries about conflict, economic insecurity and inequality.

Bangladesh (1,417 respondents)

• 67.2% are "very worried" about conflict, economic insecurity and environmental risks.
• Around 66% still feel positive about their own future.
• 90%+ of 35–39-year-old young people without children say they still want children.