quality:correction
Demographics

The provisional results of the 2014 Myanmar Census showed that the total population was 51,419,420. This figure includes an estimated 1,206,353 persons in parts of northern Rakhine State, Kachin State and Kayin State who were not counted. People who were out of the country at the time of the census are not included in these figures. There are over 600,000 registered migrant workers from Myanmar in Thailand, and millions more work illegally. Burmese citizens account for 80% of all migrant workers in Thailand. At the beginning of the 20th century, Burma's population was approximately 10 million. The national population density is 76 per square kilometre (200/sq mi), among the lowest in Southeast Asia.

Myanmar's fertility rate in 2011 was 2.23, slightly above the replacement level and low compared to Southeast Asian countries of similar economic standing. There has been a significant decline in fertility in the 2000s, from a rate of 4.7 children per woman in 1983, down to 2.4 in 2001, despite the absence of any national population policy. The fertility rate is much lower in urban areas.

The relatively rapid decline in fertility is attributed to several factors, including extreme delays in marriage (almost unparalleled among developing countries in the region), the prevalence of illegal abortions, and the high proportion of single, unmarried women of reproductive age, with 25.9% of women aged 30–34 and 33.1% of men and women aged 25–34 being single.

These patterns stem from economic dynamics, including high income inequality, which results in residents of reproductive age opting for delay of marriage and family-building in favour of attempting to find employment and establish some form of wealth; the average age of marriage in Myanmar is 27.5 for men, 26.4 for women.