Political Areas

Burma is divided into two kinds of larger units: states and regions. The seven states are areas where one or more non-Bamar people are in the majority, while the regions (formerly called divisions) are areas whose population is predominantly Bamar. The states are Kachin, Kayah (formerly Karenni), Kayin (formerly Karen), Chin, Mon, Rakhine (formerly Arakan), and Shan; the regions are Sagaing, Bago, Magway, Mandalay, Yangon, Ayeyarwady, and Tanintharyi (formerly Tenasserim).