YANGON: Myanmar’s first census in three decades shows the country has a population of 51 million people, authorities said on Saturday, 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.

The census, which triggered international concern after authorities refused to allow minority Muslims to register their ethnicity as Rohingya, was conducted in March and April.

“The provisional result of the population in Myanmar is 51,419,420. The female population is 1.7 million more than the male population,” immigration minister Khin Yi said at a press conference Saturday.

Published in Dawn, August 31th, 2014