• DOI:10.1080/17441730.2014.972084
• Corpus ID: 154114929

Provisional results of the 2014 census of Myanmar: The surprise that wasn't

@article{Spoorenberg2015ProvisionalRO,
  title={Provisional results of the 2014 census of Myanmar: The surprise that wasn't},
  author={Thomas Spoorenberg},
  journal={Asian Population Studies},
  year={2015},
  volume={11},
  pages={4 - 6}
}

• T. Spoorenberg
• Published 2 January 2015
• Economics, Medicine, Political Science
• Asian Population Studies

From 30 March to 10 April 2014, Myanmar successfully conducted its 2014 Population and Housing Census. Long-awaited, the operation has been carried out more than 30 years after the last population census on 1–5 April 1983. The 2014 census should provide valuable data for planning the social and economic development efforts of the country and furthering the reform process. The enumeration was a success in most areas of the country (with the exception of Northern Rakhine, Kachin and Kayin States where some areas were either partially or not covered in the enumeration) and met international standards (Republic of the Union of Myanmar, 2014). Furthermore, the response to and the participation of the population in the census were largely positive and enthusiastic, contributing to make the 2014 census a success (Republic of the Union of Myanmar, 2014). On 30 August 2014, the publication of the provisional results lifted a veil on the total population in the country. Up to that date, the official figure sets the national population at more than 60 million. According to one of the latest publicly available statistics of the Department of Population, Ministry of Immigration and Population, the population of Myanmar was estimated to be 60.98 million on 1 October 2012 (Department of Population, n.d.). The provisional results revealed a population of 51.4 million people in the country, including an estimated population of 1.2 million for the areas that could not be properly enumerated. These figures suggest very high census coverage with almost 98 per cent of the population counted during the census (Department of Population, 2014a, 2014b). The male total population is estimated at 24.8 million, whereas the female population reaches 26.7 million, indicating a shortage of men in the country. The provisional results released also indicated that the number of households reaches 10.9 million for an average household size of 4.4 persons (Department of Population, 2014a, 2014b).