Myanmar Map

A horseshoe of mountains around the Irrawaddy

Myanmar (Burma) is the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia, 676,578 km², with about 55 million people (UN World Population Prospects, 2025 estimate). Its shape is easiest to read as a horseshoe of mountains open to the south. In the far north, on the borders with China and India, the Himalayan foothills rise to Hkakabo Razi, usually given as 5,881 m and the highest point in Southeast Asia. Down the west run the Chin Hills and the Rakhine (Arakan) Yoma, separating the interior from the Bay of Bengal coast. The east is taken up by the Shan Plateau, around 1,000 m high, which falls to the Thanlwin (Salween) gorges and continues south as the long, narrow Tanintharyi strip between the Andaman Sea and Thailand, ending at Kawthaung on the Kra Isthmus. Offshore lie the 800 or so islands of the Mergui Archipelago.

Inside the horseshoe, the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) flows about 2,170 km from Kachin State to a vast delta west of Yangon, one of Asia's great rice bowls. Its main tributary, the Chindwin, drains the north-west, and the Sittaung flows down a parallel valley to the east. Between Magway and Mandalay lies the Dry Zone, sheltered from the monsoon by the western ranges and home to Bagan's temple plain.

Monsoon seasons and when to go

The south-west monsoon brings rain from about mid-May to October. The Rakhine and Tanintharyi coasts and the delta are among the wettest places in Asia, with several metres of rain a year, while the Dry Zone gets less than 1,000 mm. March to May is the hot season, when central Myanmar often passes 40°C. The cool, dry months from November to February have long been the main travel season, and cyclones from the Bay of Bengal are most likely in April-May and October-November; Cyclone Nargis devastated the delta in 2008. Note that much of the country is affected by armed conflict, and many governments advise against travel to most areas.

States, regions and peoples

Myanmar is divided into seven regions, mostly in the Bamar-majority lowlands (Sagaing, Magway, Mandalay, Bago, Yangon, Ayeyarwady and Tanintharyi), seven states named after ethnic groups in the surrounding hills (Kachin, Kayah, Kayin, Chin, Mon, Rakhine and Shan), and the Naypyidaw Union Territory. The Bamar are the largest group, and the government officially recognises 135 ethnic groups, a list that excludes the Rohingya Muslims of northern Rakhine, most of whom are denied citizenship. In 2017 a military campaign drove more than 700,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh, and the case is before the International Court of Justice. Burmese is the official language, and about nine in ten people are Theravada Buddhists, with Christian, Muslim and Hindu minorities.

Major Cities

Figures are from the 2014 census, the last full national count; the 2024 census could not be carried out in large parts of the country.

• Yangon - About 5.2 million in the city. The former capital (formerly Rangoon) and still the main port and commercial centre, crowned by the gilded Shwedagon Pagoda.
• Mandalay - About 1.2 million. The last royal capital, founded in 1857 below Mandalay Hill on the Ayeyarwady; it was badly damaged by the magnitude 7.7 earthquake of 28 March 2025, which killed more than 3,700 people across central Myanmar.
• Naypyidaw - About 1.2 million across the Union Territory. A planned capital built in secret and proclaimed in 2005-06, known for its very wide, mostly empty highways.
• Mawlamyine - About 290,000. Capital of Mon State at the mouth of the Thanlwin, a colonial-era port.
• Bago - About 250,000. The old Mon capital north-east of Yangon, with the Shwethalyaung reclining Buddha.

Coup and civil war

Myanmar became independent from Britain in 1948 and was ruled by the military from 1962 to 2011. After a partial opening, Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won elections in 2015 and 2020, but on 1 February 2021 the armed forces seized power and detained her. Mass protests were crushed, and armed resistance spread, led by People's Defence Forces linked to the opposition National Unity Government and by ethnic armed organisations. Since an offensive by an alliance of ethnic armies in late 2023, the military has lost large parts of the borderlands: the Arakan Army controls most of Rakhine State, and other groups hold territory in Kachin, Shan, Chin and Karenni (Kayah) areas, though the military has regained some ground, including Lashio, in 2025.

The military held a general election in three phases between 28 December 2025 and 25 January 2026, which the opposition boycotted and which did not take place in many contested townships. The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party won a large majority, and on 3 April 2026 the new parliament elected coup leader Min Aung Hlaing as president. Many Western governments rejected the vote as neither free nor fair. As of 2026, fighting continues and control of much of the country remains divided or contested.

Resources and regional links

Myanmar is a major source of jade (from Hpakant in Kachin State), rubies (from Mogok), teak, rare earths and natural gas, much of it exported to China and Thailand, and the trade in jade and rare earths helps fund armed groups on all sides. Oil and gas pipelines run from the deep-sea port at Kyaukphyu in Rakhine to Kunming in China. GDP per capita was about US$1,500 in 2025 (World Bank). Myanmar has been an ASEAN member since 1997, but since the coup its leaders have been barred from political-level ASEAN summits, a restriction ASEAN kept in place after the 2026 change of government. It keeps an unusual UTC+6:30 time zone, one of the few half-hour offsets in Asia. Its two UNESCO World Heritage Sites are the Pyu Ancient Cities (2014) and Bagan (2019), whose more than 3,500 temples, stupas and monasteries date mostly from the 11th to 13th centuries.