Seatap

Myanmar’s country conventional long form name is Union of Burma. Locally, it is called Pyidaungzu Thammada Myanma Naingngandaw (translated as the Republic of the Union of Myanmar) or Myanma Naingngandaw for short. Formerly, its name was Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma and Union of Myanmar.

Myanmar’s national symbol is chinthe (mythical lion), while its national colors are yellow, green, red, and white. Its national anthem is “Kaba Ma Kyei” or Till the End of the World, Myanmar in English. Its capital is Rangoon, with geographic coordinates of 16 48 N, 96 09 E.

Sources: The World Factbook, World Bank Open Data

Unemployment rate: 4% in 2017

Population below poverty line: 25.6% in 2016

Household income or consumption by percentage share: 2.8% for the lowest 10% and 32.4% for the highest 10% in 2007

Economics

Political parties and leaders: National Democratic Force or NDF [KHIN MAUNG SWE], National League for Democracy or NLD [AUNG SAN SUU KYI], National Unity Party or NUP [THAN TIN], Pa-O National Organization or PNO [AUNG KHAM HTI], Shan Nationalities Democratic Party or SNDP [SAI AIK PAUNG], Shan Nationalities League for Democracy or SNLD [KHUN HTUN OO], Ta’ang National Party or TNP [AIK MONE], Union Solidarity and Development Party or USDP [THAN HTAY], and Zomi Congress for Democracy or ZCD [PU CIN SIAN THANG]

International organizations:

ADB, ARF, ASEAN, BIMSTEC, CP, EAS, EITI (candidate country), FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, ITUC (NGOs), NAM, OPCW (signatory), SAARC (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, and WTO

Politics

President: Win Myint

State Counsellor: Aung San Suu Kyi

Female representation in parliament: –

Government type: Unitary parliamentary constitutional republic

Administrative districts: 7 regions (taing-myar, singular – taing), 7 states (pyi ne-myar, singular – pyi ne), 1 union territory

Independence: 4 January 1948 (from the UK)

National holidays: Independence Day, 4 January (1948); Union Day, 12 February (1947)

Military expenditure: 4.08% of GDP in 2015

Military branches: Burmese Defense Service (Tatmadaw): Army (Tatmadaw Kyi), Navy (Tatmadaw Yay), Air Force (Tatmadaw Lay) in 2013

Government

Nationality: Burmese

Population: 55,123,814 in July 2017

Ethnic groups: Burman (Bamar) 68%, Shan 9%, Karen 7%, Rakhine 4%, Chinese 3%, Indian 2%, Mon 2%, and other 5%

Religions: Buddhist 87.9%, Christian 6.2%, Muslim 4.3%, Animist 0.8%, Hindu 0.5%, other 0.2%, none 0.1% in 2015

Age structure: 0-14 years: 26.85% (male 7,567,976/female 7,233,577), 15-24 years: 17.75% (male 4,917,290/female 4,865,264), 25-54 years: 42.36% (male 11,426,913/female 11,922,728), 55-64 years: 7.52% (male 1,930,253/female 2,213,263), and 65 years and over: 5.53% (male 1,327,811/female 1,718,739 in 2017

Dependency ratio: total dependency ratio: 49.7; youth dependency ratio: 41.7; elderly dependency ratio: 8; and potential support ratio: 12.6 in 2015 .

Population growth rate: 0.91% in 2017

Birth rate: 18.1 births/1,000 population in 2017

Death rate: 7.4 deaths/1,000 population in 2017

Urban population: 35.2% of total population in 2017

Rate of urbanization: 2.29% annual rate of change in 2015-20

Demographics

Education expenditures: –

Literacy rate (age 15 and over can read and write): 75.6% of total population with ratio male: female 80%: 71.8% in 2016

School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education): 8 years total in 2010

Unemployment: 4% in total in 2017

Female labour force participation rate: –

Education

Natural resources: petroleum, timber, tin, antimony, zinc, copper, tungsten, lead, coal, marble, limestone, precious stones, natural gas, hydropower, arable land

Agriculture products: rice, pulses, beans, sesame, groundnuts; sugarcane; fish and fish products; hardwood

Industries: agricultural processing; wood and wood products; copper, tin, tungsten, iron; cement, construction materials; pharmaceuticals; fertilizer; oil and natural gas; garments; jade and gems

Industrial production growth rate: 9.6% in 2017

Labor force: 22.3 million in 2017

Labor force by occupation: agriculture (70%), industry (7%), and services (23%) in 2001

Exports: $10.07 billion in 2017

Commodities: natural gas; wood products; pulses and beans; fish; rice; clothing; minerals, including jade and gems

Imports: $15.33 billion in 2016

Commodities: fabric; petroleum products; fertilizer; plastics; machinery; transport equipment; cement, construction materials; food products, and edible oil

Natural Resources

World Press Freedom Index: –

Total subscriptions of fixed lines: 514,385 and the subscriptions per 100 inhabitants was 1 in July 2016

Total subscriptions of mobile cellular: 48,728,399 and the subscriptions per 100 inhabitants was 86 in July 2016

International country code: 95 (international service is available)

Broadcast media: 2 state-controlled TV stations with 1 of the stations controlled by the armed forces; 2 pay-TV stations are joint state-private ventures; access to satellite TV is limited; 1 state-controlled domestic radio station and 9 FM stations that are joint state-private ventures; transmissions of several international broadcasters are available in parts of Burma; the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Asia (RFA), BBC Burmese service, the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), and Radio Australia use shortwave to broadcast in Burma; VOA, RFA, and DVB produce daily TV news programs that are transmitted by satellite to audiences in Burma; in March 2017, the government granted licenses to 5 private broadcasters, allowing them digital free-to-air TV channels to be operated in partnership with government-owned Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) and will rely upon MRTV’s transmission infrastructure; the new channels are expected to begin airing programming early in 2018 in 2017

Internet country code: .mm

Internet users: 14,264,308 in total that is 25.1% of population in July 2016

Culture

Flora and Fauna

Area: 676,578 sq km in total with 653,508 sq km of land and 23,070 sq km of water

Land boundaries: 6,522 km in total

Border country: Bangladesh 271 km, China 2,129 km, India 1,468 km, Laos 238 km, and Thailand 2,416 km

Climate: tropical monsoon; cloudy, rainy, hot, humid summers (southwest monsoon, June to September); less cloudy, scant rainfall, mild temperatures, lower humidity during winter (northeast monsoon, December to April)

Land use: 19.2% for agricultural land (16.5% arable land; 2.2% permanent crops; and 0.5% permanent pasture); 48.2% for forest; and 32.6% for other in 2011

Irrigated land: 22,950 sq km in 2012

Borderline

Maternal mortality ratio: 178 deaths/100,000 live births in 2015

Infant mortality rate: 35.8 deaths/1,000 live births in total in 2017

Life expectancy at birth: 68.2 years in total population in 2017

Total fertility rate: 2.17 children born/woman in 2017

Contraceptive prevalence: 52.2% in 2016

Health expenditures: 2.3% of GDP in 2014

Physicians density: 0.57 physicians/1,000 population in 2012

Hospital bed density: 0.9 beds/1,000 population in 2012