Burmese

Burmese people or the Myanmar people (Burmese: မြန်မာလူမျိုး) are citizens of Myanmar (Burma), irrespective of their ethnic or religious background. Myanmar is a multiethnic, multicultural, and multilingual country. The Burmese government officially recognises 135 ethnic groups, who are grouped into eight 'national races,' the Bamar (Burmans), Shan, Karen, Rakhine (Arakanese), Mon, Kachin, Chin, and Kayah (Karenni). Many ethnic and ethnoreligious communities exist outside these groupings, such as the Burmese Chinese and Panthay, Burmese Indians, Anglo-Burmese, and Gurkhas. The 2014 Myanmar Census enumerated 51,486,253 persons. There is also a substantial Burmese diaspora, the majority of it in neighbouring Asian countries. Refugees and asylum seekers from Myanmar make up one of the world's five largest refugee populations.