At independence in 1972 people in Bangladesh lived on average 1o years shorter than in Pakistan, whereas both countries had very large families, 7 children per women.
Bangladesh has in the last 4 decades increased the life span from 44 to 67 years; now on par with Pakistan. In the change to small families Bangladesh has dropped from 7 to 2.3 children per women, whereas Pakistan still has almost 4 children per women. Considering that Pakistan has almost twice the GDP/capita compared to Bangladesh, the county has under-performed in health and family welfare. Click on link to look at the graph showing family size and life span in Gapminder World where I have colored the country bubbles by “% of GDP spent on Military”. Bangladesh spends around 1 % through the last decades, whereas Pakistan is slowly coming down from 7 % ( put cursor on bubble an look in upper right corner) to now 3.3 % ! www.bit.ly/joKHtJ Seems wise to let military spending drop further and increase investments in women and children!
Hans Rosling