Red with a blue rectangle in the upper hoist-side corner bearing, all in white, 14 five-pointed stars encircling a cogwheel containing a stalk of rice; the 14 stars represent the 14 administrative divisions.
Pyinmana - previous was Rangoon but regime refers to the capital as Yangon.
Administrative divisions:
7 regions* (yin-mya, singular - yin), 7 states (pyine-mya, singular - pyine), and one union territory**: Chin, Ayeyarwady*, Bago*, Kachin, Kayin, Kayah, Magway*, Mandalay*, Mon, Naypyidaw**, Rakhine, Sagaing*, Shan, Tanintharyi*, and Yangon*.
Population:
47,373,958 (July 2007 est.) Estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS, this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected.
Languages:
Burmese, minority ethnic groups have their own languages
Geographic coordinates:
22° 00' N, 98° 00' E
Area total:
678,500 sq. km
Land area:
657,740 sq. km
Water area:
20,760 sq. km
Total land boundaries:
5,876 km
Borders with neighbor countries:
Bangladesh 193 km, China 2,185 km, India 1,463 km, Laos 235 km, Thailand 1,800 km
Coastline:
1,930 km
Elevation extremes:
Andaman Sea 0 m - Hkakabo Razi 5,881 m
Internet country code:
.mm
Currency:
kyat (MMK)
Name - conventional long form:
Union of Burma
Name - conventional short form:
Burma
Name - local long form:
Pyidaungzu Myanma Naingngandaw (translated by the US Government as Union of Myanma and by the Burmese as Union of Myanmar)
Former name:
Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma
Name - notes:
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.
Independence:
4 January 1948 (from UK)
Constitution:
3 January 1974 (suspended since 18 September 1988), national convention started on 9 January 1993 to draft a new constitution, progress has since been stalled