Laos People

A 1995 census of Laos recorded a total population of 4.5 million, with an average annual growth rate of 2.4%, meaning that in 200 I Laos has an estimated population of 5.5 million. The nation's population density . is one of the lowest in Asia, around 20 people per square kilometre. By comparison, Vietnam suffers a density of 230 people per square kilometre, and Thailand 120. Roughly 85% of the population lives in rural areas.

Around 10% of the populatj0n left. the country after the 1975 communist takeover, over half being lowland Lao and the remainder a mixture of minorities. Of these, 66.5% emigrated to the USA, 14.5% to France, 8.7% to Canada and 4.9% to Australia. Vientiane and Luang Prabang Provinces lost the most people, with approximately 25% of the population of Luang Prabang going abroad. This emigration trend has recently been reversed so that the influx of immigrants mostly repatriated Lao, but also Chinese, Vietnamese and other nationalities

The Thai-Kadai
The Thai-Kadai is the most significant ethno linguistic group in South-East Asia, with 72 million speakers extending from the Brahmaputra River In India's Assam state to the Gulf of Tonkin and China's Hainan Island. To the north, there are Thai-Kadal speakers well into the Chinese. provinces of Yunnan and Guangxi, and to the south as far as the northern Malaysian state of Kedah. In Thailand and Laos they are the majority populations, and in China, Vietnam and Myanmar they are the largest minorities. The major Thai-Kadai groups are the Ahom (Assam), the Siamese (Thailand), the Thai Dam (Laos and Thailand), the Thai Yal or Shan (Myanmar and Thailand), the Thai Neua (Laos, Thailand and China), the Thai LO (Laos, Thailand and China) and the Yuan (Laos and Thailand). All of these groups belong to the Thai half of Thai-Kadai; the Kadai groups are relatively small (numbering less than one million) and include such comparatively obscure languages in southern China as Kelao, Lati, Laha, Laqua and Li.

Health & Human Development
According to UN statistics, infant mortality in Laos. is 91 per 1000 'live births (about four times higher than in Thailand, thrice as many as in Vietnam). '(he ratio of citizens to trained physicians is 4381 to one; by comparison Vietnam has a ratio of 2298 people per doctor, Cambodia 9523.

Laos's average life expectancy of 53 years is the lowest among Asean members, 12 years lower than the average for South- East Asia and 18 years lower than life expectancy in Thailand.

On the UN Human Development Index a complex matrix that integrates various statistics concerning income, health, education and living conditions - Laos ranks 136 out of 175 countries surveyed. Only 20% of the annual national budget goes to the social sector, proportionately far less than most Western countries.

Expatriate Community
Most of the expatriate Westerners living in Laos (less than 1000 in all) are temporary \ contract employees of multilateral and bilateral aid organizations or programs such as Unesco, UNDP, FAO, the Lao-Australian Irrigation Project, the Lac-Swedish Forestry Programmer and so on. A smaller number are employed by multinational companies, mainly those companies involved in mining, petroleum and hydropower. Virtually all of these groups inhabit huge mansions in eastern Vientiane, just like their compatriots did before 1975. Since the breakup of the USSR the Russian and Eastern European presence has shrunk to almost nil. There is also a growing number of foreign NGO workers.

Very few people of European descent have been allowed permanent residence in Laos, although quite a few expatriate business-owners have been able to renew temporary residence permits on a yearly basis. About a dozen Westerners - including French and Americans - stayed right through the 1975 Revolution, since small businesses were not nationalized