The census also includes questions about householders’ ethnicity and the language they speak at home.
These are hugely sensitive issues in Myanmar, which is a complex mosaic of different cultural, ethnic and linguistic groups.
Different ethnic groups have sought for decades to assert their identity and compete with each other for influence and resources while resisting the military, which is dominated by the ethnic Bamar majority.
More than 20 ethnic minority armed groups have battled for decades against the army to hold on to their home areas – and control the lucrative trade in drugs, timber and jade.
A number of those groups condemned the census and urged people not to take part.
The Chin Brotherhood Alliance, a group of ethnic armed groups in western Chin state, said the census was “only aimed at prolonging the power of the military council” and warned people against cooperating.
“Chin Brotherhood hereby issues a warning that effective action will be taken against anyone who participates in the military council’s census in our area,” it said in a statement.
The Karen National Union (KNU), which has been battling the military for decades for more autonomy along the border with Thailand, also came out against the census.
Saw Thamain Tun, a KNU leader, said the junta was trying to create political legitimacy for its coup through the census.
In eastern Mon state, the New Mon State Party (Anti-Dictatorship) also urged people not to answer the survey.
“We will not accept their census,” Nai Banya Mon, a spokesperson from the group, told AFP.
