Dhaka, April 18 : After a decade, the average life expectancy of people in Bangladesh has fallen for the first time, official data revealed. According to the data released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics on Monday, the average life expectancy in 2021 stood at 72.3 years, down half a year, or six months, from 72.8 years in 2020, reports bdnews24. The data showed that the Covid-19 pandemic wiped out some of the gains the country achieved in the area over the last decades. The first case was detected in Bangladesh on March 8, 2020. Since then, 29,446 people have died, according to the official count. Most of these deaths took place in 2020 and 2021. The data also revealed that the life expectancy for males was 70.6 in 2021, down from 71.2 in 2020, Xinhua news agency. For females, the report showed it was 74.1 years in 2021, down from 74.5 years in 2020. In 2021, the gross birth rate per thousand population in Bangladesh was 18.8. This represented a decrease in the birth rate of 0.7 people per thousand compared to the rate of 18.1 in 2020. The gross mortality rate rose from 5.1 to 5.7 individuals per thousand population in that year, according to the report. The report also highlights that the population growth rate in 2021 was 1.301 individuals per thousand, slightly lower than 1.303 individuals in 2020. /IANS