Economy

Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of age)
• 36.1% have an account with a financial institution
• 2% have a credit card
• 29% have a mobile money account
• 10.9% make online purchases

Ease of doing business
Ease of conducting business is medium (rated 46.8 out of 100). Ranked 24th out of 25 East-Asia and Pacific countries. Ranked 165th out of 190 countries worldwide (2022, World Bank).

Global Innovation Index
Ranked 17th out of 17 South East Asia, East Asia, and Oceanian countries, and 116th out of 132 worldwide.

The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.

Source: Statista

Source: OEC

Media

Media language English, Burmese

Information channels
Strict media restrictions were eased after 2011 under former president, Thein Sein. But media freedom has not been a priority for the democratically elected government that took office in 2016, says Reporters Without Borders. The group says self-censorship is applied when reporting about officials and the military, and the authorities still exert pressure on the media, even intervening to change editorial policies. The state controls the main broadcasters and publications and has a monopoly on telecommunications. Media coverage of violence in Rakhine State is tightly controlled by the military and the government, says Freedom House. Former exiled outlets Democratic Voice of Burma and Mizzima were selected in 2017 to operate digital TV channels under the auspices of state broadcaster MRTV. Foreign broadcasters serving audiences in Myanmar include the BBC, Voice of America, and US-backed Radio Free Asia. Freedom House says there has been a sharp rise in the number of defamation cases filed against people who have criticised the government online.

The press

Kyehmon – (The Mirror), state-run daily
Myanmar Alin – organ of State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
New Light of Myanmar – English-language organ of SPDC
Myanmar Times – state-run English-language weekly
7 Day Daily – privately-owned
The Messenger – privately-owned

Television

Myanmar Radio and TV (MRTV) – broadcasts in Bamar, Arakanese (Rakhine), Shan, Karen, Kachin, Kayah, Chin, Mon and English
Myanmar International TV – state-run, in English
Myawaddy TV – army-run network
TV5 – state-private joint pay-TV venture

Radio

Myanmar Radio – state-run, operated by MRTV
City FM – run by Rangoon City Development Committee
Shwe FM – commercial
Cherry FM – commercial

News Agencies

Myanmar News Agency (MNA) – state-run
Eleven Myanmar – website of privately-owned Eleven Media Group
The Irrawaddy – Thailand-based website, in English and Burmese
Mizzima – news website of privately-owned Mizzima media group
Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) – privately-owned news website

Internet Data

Internet users
44% penetration, 23.93 million

Share of web traffic by device
67.52% mobile phones, 30.73% computers (laptops and desktops), 1.74% tablet devices.

Median speed of mobile Internet connection
25.21  Mbps

Median speed of fixed Internet connection
18.98 Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 118.8%

Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 90.3%

Most popular web search engines
Google (95.83%), Bing (3.03%), Baidu (0.47%), Yahoo! (0.27%), Petal Search (0.14%), other (0.27%).

Most used social media
Facebook (82.49%), Twitter (7.12%), Pinterest (4.25%), YouTube (3.81%), Instagram (0.89%), VKontakte (0.83%), Reddit (0.27%), other (0.34%).

Social statistics

Life expectancy
66 yrs (2021)

Corruption perceptions Index
Myanmar scored 23 out of 100, ranked 157 out of 180 countries worldwide.

CO2 emissions
0.6 metric tons per capita

Current education expenditure
74.6% of total expenditure in public institutions

Current health expenditure
4.62% of GDP

World Happiness Index
Myanmar ranked 126 out of 137 countries, with a score of 4.394.