Basic Facts about Myanmar

Population and National Races of Myanmar
         Myanmar is a union of various nationalities with over one hundred national races with their own languages and dialects. The term Myanmar embraces all nationalities: the Bamar, the Chin, the Kachin, the Kayah, the Kayin, the Mon, the Rakhine and the Shan. Each of them belongs to one of the three major racial groups: the Monkhmers, the Tibeton Bamars and the Thai-Shans. According to the statistics of 1998-99, the population of the country was about 47.25 million and the population growth rate was 1.84 percent. Males constituted 23.46 million, forming 49.66 percent and females constituted 23.79 million, forming 50.34 percent. The population has now reached over 52 million.

         Despite the diversity and geographic separation the national groups share with each other a wide variety of social customs. Blessed with a favourable climate and inhabited by a happy, creative people, Myanmar culture on the whole is indigenous.

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