Access to electricity in Bangladesh reached 99.5% of the population in 2023, a record high.

Bangladesh achieved near-universal electricity access in 2023, with 99.5% of the population connected, according to World Bank data. This marks a marginal increase from 99.4% in 2022, indicating that the country has effectively closed the access gap after decades of sustained expansion. A decade earlier, in 2013, coverage stood at 61.5%, meaning access has grown by 38.0 percentage points over ten years, a 61.8% rise relative to the 2013 baseline. The trajectory since 1991, when only 14.29% of the population had electricity, underscores one of the most rapid scale-ups in connectivity recorded in the country's development history.

For policymakers, the practical challenge has shifted decisively from connections to quality and reliability. With virtually all households now nominally linked to the grid, attention must turn to adequacy of supply, system stability, and affordability, particularly during peak demand periods. The near-complete access figure also raises the bar for energy sector planning: future gains will be measured not in new connections but in reduced load-shedding, improved voltage consistency, and the integration of cleaner generation sources into the fuel mix.

Data note. This indicator measures the share of population with access to electricity but does not capture hours of available supply, voltage quality, or the frequency of outages, all of which materially affect the welfare impact of a connection.