Age at menarche and its socioeconomic determinants among female students in an urban area in Bangladesh

•Data on age at menarche is scares in developing countries like Bangladesh.•Age at menarche was in Bangladeshi urban school going adolescents.•Higher education was significant predictor of age at menarche.

This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the age at menarche and its socioeconomic determinants among urban female students (n = 680) in Bangladesh. The mean age of the respondents was 14 ± 1.43 years. Majority of the respondents were unmarried (98.4%). The mean age at menarche was 11.6 ± 3.6 years, median 12 years. Almost one-third (35.7%) of the participants had menarche at the age of 12 years. There was no statistically significant difference between age at menarche before and after 12 years with the socio-economic characteristics, except education (p = <0.001). In the multivariate model, only higher education was statistically significant predictor of age at menarche.