When at the end of last week the Department of Population in Myanmar’s Ministry of Immigration and Population released provisional census results, the main story was the national population count. Set against a figure of 60 million long thought to be broadly accurate, the actual 2014 estimate of 51,419,420 people came as something of a shock. Missing migrants could fill some of the gap. That aside, though, what do the preliminary returns tell us? Three main features stand out.

The first is population totals in Myanmar’s 15 major territorial units – 7 regions, 7 states, and Naypyitaw capital territory. Two are really very small: Kayah State (286,738 people) and Chin State (478,690). Every other unit contains at least one million people. Eight are reasonably large: Yangon Region (7,355,075), Ayeyarwady Region (6,175,123), Mandalay Region (6,145,588), Shan State (5,815,384), Sagaing Region (5,320,299), Bago Region (4,863,455), Magway Region (3,912,711) and Rakhine State (3,188,963). The next biggest unit is Mon State, with just over two million people.

The second is population densities in those 15 territorial units. Here one part of Myanmar is distinct from everywhere else: Yangon Region, with 723 people per square kilometre. Across the rest of the country there are differences, but they are all variations on a theme of low density. The sparsest populations are in Chin State (13), Kachin State (19) and Kayah State (24). But even Mandalay Region, second to Yangon on the list, has a density of just 206 people per square kilometre.

The third is the overwhelmingly rural nature of Myanmar. Nationally, only 29.6 percent of the population lives in urban areas. The sole significant exception to this general pattern is again Yangon Region at 70.1 percent. Elsewhere, the spread runs from 14.1 percent urban in Ayeyarwady Region to 35.9 percent urban in Kachin State.