Country
name: Union of Burma (1948);
Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma
(1974);
Union of Myanmar (1989).
Area: 261,000 sq miles.
Coastline: 1,600 miles.
Population: 47 million.
Urban population: 26%
Population density:
160 people/sq mile.
Refugees: [300,000 in Thailand; 20,000 in China and India;
50,000 in Bangladesh].
Internally displaced: about two million people.
Birth rate: 2.1%
Life expectancy: 59 years.
Adult literacy: 19.4%
School attendance: 26.7%
People per telephone: 348.4
People per TV: 22.0
People per doctor: 12,500
Infant mortality: 79
Languages: Arakanese, Burmese, Chin, Kachin, Karen, Karenni,
Mon, Shan, Wa, English and
more than 100 minority dialects.
Religions: Buddhist (85%), Animist (5%), Christian (4.5%),
Muslim (4%), Hindu (1.5%).
Per capital GDP: US$ 676; (Industry 10%, Agriculture 46%).
GDP (PPP): US$ 31 billion
GDP growth: 6.4%
Per capital GNP: US$890
Saving % of GDP: 12%
Reserves excl. gold: US$ 0.7billion
Cur acct. balance: US$ 0.2 billion
Exports 12 months: US$ 0.8 billion
Inflation CPI: 21.8%
Foreign debt: US$ 5.3 billion
GDP spending: 3.1% on military (non-SLORC figures; over 50%), 2.2% education, 0.8% health.
Wage earners: 6 million (estimated).
LDC status: Since 1987
Natural resources: tin, plutonium, zinc, copper, cobalt, gold, rubies,
jade, teak(80% of world’s reserves),
fish (704 metric tons/year),gas, oil,
rice, sesame, groundnuts.
Agriculture: 68% of workforce
employed in agriculture; 15% of arable land; under 50% of potentially
productive land under cultivation.
Rice exports: 3.5 million tons (1930s); 2 million tons (1962); 20,000 tons (1988).
Opium production: 1,300 tons (1988), 2,400 tons (1994) (70% of US market)
Administrative areas: 7 States (Arakan, Chin, Mon, Kachin, Karen, Kayah, Shan);
7 Divisions (Irrawaddy, Magwe, Mandalay, Pegu, Rangoon, Sagaing, Tenasserim).
Last election: May 1990.
Next election: Unknown.
Form of government: Military dictatorship
(State Law and Order Restoration Council since 1988, membership
expanded 1992).
Government Address: State Law and Order
Restoration Council, Ministry of Defence, Signal Pagoda Rd,
Yangon, MYANMAR (mail addressed to “BURMA” will most likely not be delivered).
Preface
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Acronyms and Abbreviations, Terms and Measurements
Burma at a Glance: Facts and Figures
Ethnic Peoples of Burma
Headlines in Review: Events of 1995
THE STATE OF BURMESE ECONOMY UNDER MILITARY MANAGEMENT
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Burma