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: 261,228 sq miles or 677,000 sq kilometres

Coastline: 1,760 miles

Population: 50 million (app)

Population growth rate: 1.84%

Refugees from Burma: approximately 300,000 in Thailand, 12,000 in China and India, 20,000 in Bangladesh

Internally displaced people: approximately two million people

Birth rate: 28.48 births/1,000 population

Death rate: 12.39 deaths/1,000 population

Life expectancy: 60 years (app with gender differential)

No. of T.V’s 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 (89.3%), Animist (0.2%), Christian (5.6%), Muslim (3.8%), Hindu (0.5%)

Burmese Border Refugees: Karenni camps- 20,091

(December 2001) Karen camps - 125,118

Mon-Resettlement Sites- 138,117

Maneeloy Student Centre- 1,767

Inflation CPI: 11.5%

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 ar able land; less than 50% of potentially productive land under cultivation

Opium production: 1,300 tons (1988), 2,800 tons (1997), 1,800 tons (1998) (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 sources including their publication Myanmar Facts and Figures 2002, published by the Ministry of Information Union of Myanmar 2002]