FACTBOX: Key facts about Myanmar, Asia's troubled state

(Reuters) - Chanting "democracy, democracy", about 10,000 monks marched through the heart of Myanmar's main city on Tuesday in defiance of a threat by the ruling generals to send in troops to end the biggest anti-junta protests in 20 years.

Here are some key facts about Myanmar, a former British colony that gained independence in 1948.

COUNTRY NAME: Union of Myanmar, or Myanmar. The name was changed from the Union of Burma in 1989 in what the ruling military junta described as an attempt to respond to protests from minority non-Burman ethnic groups.

POPULATION: 56.51 million in 2006 and growing an average annual two percent, the Asian Development Bank estimates. The vast majority of the 135 ethnic groups are Burman (68 percent), followed by Shan (9 percent) and Karen (7 percent).

The population is predominately Theravada Buddhist (89 percent), the rest being Christian, Muslim, Hindu and animist.

AREA: At approximately 678,000 sq km (261,800 sq miles), it is the second largest country in Southeast Asia. Less than two percent of land is under permanent crops and pasture. About 15 percent is arable. Forests make up nearly 50 percent.

BORDERS: Myanmar has borders with Bangladesh, China, India, Laos and Thailand . It also has nearly 2,000 km of coastline on the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal.

CAPITAL: Naypyidaw. In 2005, the military government moved the capital 390 kilometers (240 miles) north from colonial-era Yangon (formerly known as Rangoon) to remote Naypyidaw.

ARMED FORCES: Active forces estimated at 375,500 in 2006, making the country's military one of Asia's largest after China and India. The military rely mostly on older Russian and Chinese technology.