Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is a country in Mainland Southeast Asia; it is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and southwest. The 2025 population and housing census enumerated 6,744,701 residents. A post-enumeration survey estimated the true resident population at approximately 7.24 million. Its capital and most populous city is Vientiane. It has three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the town of Luang Prabang, the temple complex of Vat Phou, and the Plain of Jars. Laos participates in the Greater Mekong Subregion economic cooperation programme and is a member of ASEAN, the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement, East Asia Summit, La Francophonie, and the World Trade Organization.
The kingdom of Lan Xang existed from the 14th to 18th centuries and was a hub for overland trade through its territory. In 1707 it split into three kingdoms: Luang Prabang, Vientiane, and Champasak. In 1893, these kingdoms were unified under French rule as part of French Indochina. Laos was under Japanese administration during World War II, gaining independence in 1945 before returning to French administration until achieving autonomy in 1949. It regained full independence in 1953 as the Kingdom of Laos, with a constitutional monarchy under Sisavang Vong. A civil war from 1959 to 1975 saw the communist Pathet Lao (supported by China, North Vietnam, and the Soviet Union) oppose the Royal Lao Armed Forces (backed by the United States). It ended with the Lao People's Revolutionary Party's establishment of the Lao People's Democratic Republic in 1975.
Etymology
In the Lao language, the country is colloquially called Muang Lao (ເມືອງລາວ, lit. 'Lao Country') or Pathet Lao (ປະເທດລາວ). The official state name is the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ). In English, the country name is written as Laos, while Lao serves as both the primary demonym and adjective; the term Laotian is also used to refer to citizens or inhabitants of the country. The English name Laos was adopted from French, which historically pluralised the ethnonym with a terminal "s" to refer to the Lao people and their various kingdoms collectively
Traditional Lao historiography presents several explanations for the origin of the word Lao (ລາວ). One theory connects the name to the Pali word lābu, referring to the bottle gourd, a central element in traditional Lao origin myths from which humanity emerged. Another account traces the name to Tai-Lao tribes migrating southwards from Yunnan, originally known as Kao Long (referring to nine dragons or legendary chieftains), which was shortened to Luang and eventually transformed into Lao. A folk etymology suggests that indigenous valley dwellers referred to high-altitude migrants as Dao (ດາວ, 'star') due to their proximity to the sky, a term that later shifted phonetically to Lao.
In modern linguistics, the ethnonym is linked to Chinese Han dynasty records mentioning the Ai Lao (Chinese: 哀牢) confederation. French linguist Michel Ferlus proposed that Lao stems from an Austroasiatic root, *k.raw, denoting "human being" or "person".
Geography
Laos is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia and lies mostly between latitudes 14° and 23°N, and longitudes 100° and 108°E. Its forested landscape consists mostly of mountains, the highest of which is Phou Bia at 2,818 metres (9,245 ft), with some plains and plateaus. The Mekong River forms a part of the western boundary with Thailand, where the mountains of the Annamite Range form most of the eastern border with Vietnam and the Luang Prabang Range the northwestern border with the Thai highlands. There are two major plateaus: the Xiangkhoang in the north and the Bolaven Plateau at the southern end.
In 1993, the government set aside 21% of the land area for habitat conservation preservation. Laos had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 5.59/10, ranking it 98th globally out of 172 countries. It is one of three nations in the opium poppy growing region known as the "Golden Triangle". According to the October 2007 UNODC fact book Opium Poppy Cultivation in South East Asia, the poppy cultivation area was 15 square kilometres (5.8 sq mi), down from 18 square kilometres (6.9 sq mi) in 2006.
Climate
The climate is mostly tropical savanna and influenced by the monsoon pattern. There is a rainy season from May to October, followed by a dry season from November to April. The latter two months of the climatologically defined dry season are hotter than the earlier four months.
Wildlife
Laos, with its forests and river systems, is home to an array of wildlife. National parks like Nam Et-Phou Louey and Nakai-Nam Theun are refuges, supporting endangered species such as the northern white-cheeked gibbon and the saola. These forests shelter more than 50 mammal species and nearly 300 bird species, along with a variety of reptiles and amphibians. Some of the native species are listed as endangered, from Asian elephants to gibbons and tigers; conservation efforts are in place to protect them.
Administrative divisions
Laos is divided into 17 provinces and one prefecture, which includes the capital city Vientiane.
Note: (a) The 2015 Census total was estimated to have an under-enumeration of 2.76%, resulting in a revised 2015 estimate of 6,671,680.
History
Prehistory
In 2009, an anatomically modern human skull was recovered from Tam Pa Ling Cave in the Annamite Mountains. At least 46,000 years old, the skull was the oldest modern human fossil discovered in Southeast Asia at the time. Stone artifacts, including Hoabinhian types, have also been found at Pleistocene sites in northern Laos.
Archaeological evidence indicates that an agricultural society developed during the 4th millennium BCE, with bronze artifacts appearing around 1500 BCE and iron tools by 700 BCE. The proto-historic period was characterized by contact with Chinese and Indian civilizations. Linguistic and historical evidence indicates that Tai-speaking groups migrated southwest from Guangxi into present-day Laos and Thailand between the 8th and 10th centuries.
Lan Xang
Prince Fa Ngum founded the kingdom of Lan Xang ("a million elephants") in the 14th century. Leading 10,000 Khmer troops, he conquered several principalities in the Mekong River basin and captured Vientiane. Fa Ngum traced his lineage back to Khun Borom and established Theravada Buddhism as the state religion. In 1373, ministers forced him into exile in Nan due to his ruthlessness, where he later died. His eldest son succeeded him as Samsenethai and reigned for 43 years. Lan Xang became a regional trade hub during Samsenethai's reign, but after his death in 1421, the kingdom fractured into competing factions for nearly a century.
In 1520, Photisarath ascended the throne and moved the capital from Luang Prabang to Vientiane to counter the threat of a Burmese invasion. Setthathirath became king in 1548 and commissioned That Luang. After Setthathirath disappeared in the mountains during a military campaign in Cambodia, Lan Xang entered a 70-year period of instability marked by civil war and Burmese invasions.
Sourigna Vongsa expanded Lan Xang's borders after taking the throne in 1637. When he died without an heir, the kingdom split into three principalities. Between 1763 and 1769, Burmese forces overran northern Laos and annexed Luang Prabang, while the Kingdom of Champasak came under Siamese suzerainty. The Siamese installed Anouvong as a vassal king of Vientiane. Anouvong patronized Lao arts and literature while seeking closer ties with Luang Prabang. Under Vietnamese pressure, he launched an unsuccessful rebellion against Siam in 1826; Vientiane was ransacked, and Anouvong died as a captive in Bangkok.
Because population control was prioritized over territorial expansion in traditional Southeast Asian warfare, military conflicts often targeted captives and resources. A British observer described an 1876 Siamese military campaign in Laos as "transformed into slave-hunting raids on a large scale".
French Laos
In the 19th century, Luang Prabang was ransacked by the Chinese Black Flag Army. France rescued King Oun Kham and included Luang Prabang to the protectorate of French Indochina. The Kingdom of Champasak and the territory of Vientiane were later also added to the protectorate. King Sisavang Vong of Luang Prabang became ruler of a unified Laos under French control of the region, and Vientiane once again became the capital.
Laos produced tin, rubber, and coffee, while the country never accounted for more than 1% of French Indochina's exports. By 1940, around 600 French citizens lived in Laos. Under French rule, the Vietnamese were encouraged to migrate to Laos; this was seen by the French colonists as a rational solution to a labour shortage within the confines of an Indochina-wide colonial space. By 1943, the Vietnamese population stood at nearly 40,000, forming the majority in some cities of Laos and having the right to elect its own leaders. As a result, 53% of the population of Vientiane, 85% of Thakhek, and 62% of Pakse were Vietnamese; the exception was Luang Prabang, where the population was predominantly Lao. In 1945, the French drew up a plan to move some of the Vietnamese to the Vientiane Plain, Savannakhet region, and the Bolaven Plateau, which was derailed by the Japanese invasion of Indochina. Otherwise, according to Martin Stuart-Fox, the Lao might well have lost control over their own country.
During World War II, Vichy France, Thailand, Imperial Japan and Free France occupied Laos. On 9 March 1945, a nationalist group declared Laos independent, with Luang Prabang as its capital; on 7 April two battalions of Japanese troops occupied the city. The Japanese attempted to force Sisavang Vong (the king of Luang Prabang) to declare Laotian independence, and on 8 April he instead declared an end to Laos's status as a French protectorate. The king then secretly sent Prince Kindavong to represent Laos to the Allied forces and Prince Sisavang as representative to the Japanese. When Japan surrendered, some Lao nationalists (including Prince Phetsarath) declared Lao independence, and by 1946 French troops had reoccupied the country and conferred autonomy on Laos.
During the First Indochina War, the Indochinese Communist Party formed the Pathet Lao independence organization. The Pathet Lao began a war against the French colonial forces with the aid of the Vietnamese independence organization, the Viet Minh. In 1950, the French were forced to give Laos semi-autonomy as an "associated state" within the French Union. France remained in de facto control until 22 October 1953, when Laos gained full independence as a constitutional monarchy.
Independence, and communist state
The First Indochina War took place across French Indochina and eventually led to French defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and the signing of peace accord for Laos at the Geneva Conference of 1954. In 1960, amidst a series of rebellions in the Kingdom of Laos, fighting broke out between the Royal Lao Army and the communist Pathet Lao, a group allied with North Vietnam and the Soviet Union. A second provisional government of "National Union" formed by Prince Souvanna Phouma and the Pathet Lao in 1956 was unsuccessful; by 1959, the situation turned into civil war between the Royal Laotian government and the Pathet Lao. The Pathet Lao guerillas were backed militarily by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Viet Cong.
Laos became drawn into the Vietnam War, with parts of Laos were invaded and occupied by North Vietnam since 1958 for use as a supply route for its war against South Vietnam. In response, the United States initiated an aerial bombing campaign against the PAVN positions, supported regular and irregular anti-communist forces in Laos, and supported incursions into Laos by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. Aerial bombardments against the PAVN/Pathet Lao forces were carried out to prevent the collapse of the Kingdom of Laos central government and to deny them use of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the Vietnamese supply route that passed through Laos and Cambodia, to attack US forces in South Vietnam. Between 1964 and 1973, the US dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs on Laos, nearly as much as all the bombs dropped during World War II combined (American bombers dropped 2.1 million tons of bombs on Europe and Asia during World War II). This makes Laos the most heavily bombed country in history relative to the size of its population (per capita); The New York Times notes this was "nearly a ton for every person in Laos". Some 80 million bombs failed to explode and remain scattered throughout the country. Unexploded ordnance, including cluster munitions and mines, kill or maim approximately 50 people every year. As a result Laos became an advocate of the Convention on Cluster Munitions to ban the weapons and was host to the First Meeting of States Parties to the convention in 2010.