New report finds significant improvements to living conditions in Myanmar

A joint report conducted by the Central Statistical Organization, the UNDP, and the World Bank in 2017 indicates that people have improved their living conditions in Myanmar.

Electrification extended to Myanmar’s villages

Myanmar’s villages had considerable growth in solar and public grid access. Last year, the number of households that used electricity for lighting increased by over 30 % compared to the situation in 2015. Nearly 25% of all households were able to light their houses by using a solar system, compared to none eight years ago. It is highly potential that rural areas that already access to public grid can be beneficial from electrification through strengthened connections.

Increasing demand found in consumer goods

The market of mobile phones expanded rapidly where smartphone is still a dominating device in technology. A gender gap is found between mobile phone and Internet usage. Men are more proactive in reporting Internet and mobile phone usage. 4% more is found in mobile ownership of male-headed households than female-headed one. Although computers are not widely used, the survey found that some groups of population have started to adopt this hardware, especially among people with higher school education or above.

Rising hygiene awareness

The percentage of households reporting open defecation dropped by 8% since 2014. However, increasing risk of contamination is discovered in several states and regions due to transportation of water from source to consumption location.

Encouraging process made in education

Net total high school enrolment rate in 2017 is nearly two times higher than the one seven years ago, over 90% of literacy rates are found in half of the states and regions. The remaining areas also recorded almost 80% of literacy rates.

Although Myanmar received salient improvement in people’s living condition, the government needs to make effort to some parts such as building reliable water sources and expanding connections to electrification in rural areas.

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Image credit: UNHCR