Languages:
Burmese, minority ethnic groups have their own languages
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 85.3%
male: 89.2%
female: 81.4% (2002)
Government Burma
Country name:
conventional long form: Union of Burma
conventional short form: Burma
local long form: Pyidaungzu Myanma Naingngandaw (translated by the
US Government as Union of Myanma and by the Burmese as Union of
Myanmar)
local short form: Myanma Naingngandaw
former: Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma
note: since 1989 the military authorities in Burma have promoted the
name Myanmar as a conventional name for their state; this decision
was not approved by any sitting legislature in Burma, and the US
Government did not adopt the name, which is a derivative of the
Burmese short-form name Myanma Naingngandaw
Government type:
military junta
Capital:
Rangoon (government refers to the capital as Yangon)
Administrative divisions:
7 divisions (taing-myar, singular - taing) and 7 states (pyi
ne-myar, singular - pyi ne)
: divisions: Ayeyarwady, Bago, Magway, Mandalay, Sagaing,
Tanintharyi, Yangon
: states: Chin State, Kachin State, Kayin State, Kayah State, Mon
State, Rakhine State, Shan State
Independence:
4 January 1948 (from UK)
National holiday:
Independence Day, 4 January (1948); Union Day, 12 February (1947)
Constitution:
3 January 1974; suspended since 18 September 1988; national
convention convened in 1993 to draft a new constitution but
collapsed in 1996; reconvened in 2004 but does not include
participation of democratic opposition