Myanmar census yields surprise

Population count: Passengers disembarking from a ferry onto a jetty in Yangon. - AFP

YANGON: Myanmar’s first census in three decades shows the country has a population of 51 million people, authorities said, around nine million fewer than an earlier estimate.

The former junta-ruled nation’s last survey was conducted in 1983 and in more recent estimates the government had put the population at around 60 million.