Bangladesh (/ˌbæŋɡləˈdɛʃ, ˌbɑːŋ-/;[15] Bengali: , pronounced [ˈbaŋlaˌdeʃ] (listen)) (bung-la-desh), officially the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, is an independent, secular and democratic country in South Asia. It is the world’s fifth largest democracy, having the eighth largest population in the world.[16][17] Bangladesh is among the most densely populated countries in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of 148,460 square kilometres (57,320 sq mi).[10] To the west, north and east, Bangladesh shares land borders with India and with Myanmar to the southeast. In the south, Bangladesh has the world’s longest natural sandy beach in Cox’s Bazar and the world’s largest mangrove forest (Sundarbans) along the coastline forming the northern part of the Bay of Bengal at the apex of the Indian Ocean. It is narrowly separated from Bhutan and Nepal by the Siliguri Corridor and from China by the Indian state of Sikkim in the north. Bangladesh is a parliamentary democracy, where the Prime Minister is the Head of State and the President is a ceremonial figure. General elections are held routinely every five years to elect three hundred Members of Parliament and the party that wins the largest number of seats in parliament forms the government. Dhaka, the capital and the largest city, is the nation’s political, financial and cultural centre. Chittagong is the second-largest city and Chittagong Port is one of the busiest ports in the Bay of Bengal together with Mongla Port, Payra Port and Matarbari Port. The official language is Bengali, one of the easternmost branches of the Indo-European language family.