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Burma or Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, is a state in Southeast Asia. It occupies part of the west coast of the Indochina Peninsula, is bordered by the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea and is bordered from west to east by Bangladesh, India, China, Laos and Thailand. On 6 November 2005, the capital was moved from Yangon to Pyinmana, which was officially renamed Naypyidaw, i.e. 'seat of kings', on 27 March 2006.
After gaining independence from the United Kingdom in 1948, Burma was first ruled democratically, then, following a coup in 1962, by a military dictatorship. Since 2010, Burma's military government has implemented a series of gradual political reforms, establishing a civilian government, releasing political opponents including Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy, and calling free parliamentary elections, by-elections in 2012 and general elections in 2015.
As of April 2021, it has a population of approximately 54,700,104. The majority of the population is ethnic Bamar and Buddhist, but there are also numerous ethnic minorities, who have been involved in various armed conflicts with the central government since independence.
Economically, Myanmar is still, as of 2016, one of the poorest and least developed countries on the planet, and after decades of stagnation, international embargoes and economic isolation, the country has been experiencing strong economic development in all sectors since 2011, with growth peaks of over 8% per year.
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