BURMA AT A GLANCE: FACTS AND FIGURES
Country name: Union of Burma (1948), Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma (1974), Union of Myanmar (1989)
Government: State Peace and Development Council
System of Government: Military Dictatorship
Area: 678,500 sq km
Coastline: 1,930 km
Population: approximately 50 million people
Population growth rate: 0.47% (2004 est.)
Refugees from Burma: approximately 400,000 in Thailand, 50,000 Chin in India, 120,000 Rohingya in Bangladesh, 10,000 Rohingya in Malaysia, and an unknown number of Kachin in China
Internally displaced people: approximately 2 million people
Birth rate: 18.64 births/1,000 population (2004 est.)
Death rate: 12.16 deaths/1,000 population (2004 est.)
Life expectancy at birth: male: 54.22 years, female: 57.9 years (2004 est.)
No. of TVs per 1,000 people: 7
No. of doctors per 10,000 people: 2.96
Languages: Arakanese, Burmese, Chin, Kachin, Karen, Karenni, Mon, Shan, Wa, English and more than 100 minority dialects
Religions: Buddhist (89%), Animist (2%), Christian (4%), (Baptist 3%, Roman Catholic 1%), Muslim (4%), Hindu (0.5%), other 2%
Burmese Border Refugees: Karenni camps - 21, 879
(December 2003) Karen camps - 113,743
Mon-Resettlement Sites - 151,808
Tham Hin Zone 4 (formerly known as Maneeloy Student Centre) - 72
Inflation rate: 52.8% (consumer prices) (2003 est.)
GDP spending: 3.1 % on military (non-SPDC figures: over 50%) 2.2% education, 0.8% health
LDC status: since 1987
Natural resources: tin, plutonium, zinc, copper, cobalt, gold, rubies, jade, teak (80% of world’s reserves), fish (704 metric ton/year), gas, oil, rice, sesame, groundnuts
Agriculture: 68% of workforce employed in agriculture; 15% of arable land; less than 50% of potentially productive land under cultivation
Opium production: 1,300 tons (1988), 2,800 tons (1997), 1,800 tons (1998), 630 metric tons (2002) (70% of US market)
Administrative areas: Seven States (Arakan, Chin, Mon, Kachin, Karen, Kayah, Shan), Seven Divisions (Irrawaddy, Magwe, Mandalay, Pegu, Rangoon, Sagaing, Tenasserim)
Last election: May 27, 1990. NLD won 392 of the 485 seats contested
[There is a caveat on the facts and figures as accurate data is not readily available, even in official publications. Most of the facts and figures contained herein are drawn from SPDC’s publication, Myanmar Facts and Figures 2002, published by the Ministry of Information Union of Myanmar 2002, the CIA World Fact Book which was updated in 2004, the US State Department, and the Burma Border Consortium Six-Month Report (July - December 2003).]