Nepalese women outnumber men

Women outnumber men in the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal by about 40,000 the country's latest census reveals.

Officials from the Central Bureau of Statistics say that the country's population has grown by nearly five million in the last ten years.

It is now more than 23 million. The census results show that more than 85% of the population lives in rural areas. The population of the capital, Kathmandu, has grown phenomenally -- from around 670,000 10 years ago, to more than a million today.

The census excludes 80 villages, figures from which could not be collected because they are affected by the ongoing Maoist insurgency in Nepal.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service