Laos had a population of 6,492,228 on March 1, 2015, according to the Lao PHC 2015 report. The census describes a young population, declining but still substantial fertility, a predominantly rural settlement pattern, and wide differences between urban areas and rural communities without roads.
Contents
- Population growth and settlement
- Age and sex structure
- Ethnicity and religion
- Births, fertility, and mortality
- Migration and education
- Disability and employment
- Households and living conditions
Population growth and settlement
The Lao PHC 2015 report recorded 6,492,228 residents in Lao PDR on March 1, 2015. That was nearly twice the 3,584,803 people counted in 1985. Average annual population growth was 2.47% between 1985 and 1995, 2.08% between 1995 and 2005, and 1.45% between 2005 and 2015. These are historical census-period growth rates, not forecasts.
In 2015, 32.9% of the population lived in urban areas and 67.1% lived in rural areas. The census further divided the rural population by road access: 59.2% of the country’s population were rural residents with roads, while 7.9% were rural residents without roads. This distinction is useful because several demographic and household indicators varied sharply across those settings.
Urbanization differed considerably by location. Vientiane Capital was 78% urban, while Saravane was 11% urban. Chanthabuly, Sisattanak, and Xaysetha were entirely urban districts. At the other end of the distribution, 25 of 148 districts had urban populations of 10% or less.
| Population measure | 2015 figure |
|---|---|
| Total population | 6,492,228 |
| Urban share | 32.9% |
| Rural share | 67.1% |
| Rural, with roads | 59.2% |
| Rural, without roads | 7.9% |
| Households | 1,183,386 |
| Mean household size | 5.3 persons |
The country had 1,183,386 households in 2015, with a mean household size of 5.3 persons. The comparable mean in 2005 was 5.8 persons, indicating smaller average households by the 2015 census.
Age and sex structure
Males made up 50.1% of the 2015 population. The national sex ratio was 101 males per 100 females. The age profile was substantially younger than an older, mature population: children aged 0–14 accounted for 32.0% of residents, people aged 15–64 accounted for 63.7%, and people aged 65 and over accounted for 4.2%.
People aged 10–24 represented 31.9% of the population, and the median age was 23.5 years. The age structure therefore combined a large working-age group with a substantial child and youth population. Dependency ratios provide another view of that balance. The young-age dependency ratio was 50, the old-age dependency ratio was 7, and the total dependency ratio was 57 in 2015.
These ratios describe the number of young, old, or total dependants relative to the working-age population under the report’s demographic definitions. They should not be read as employment rates or as a count of people who were economically inactive.
Ethnicity and religion
The Lao ethnic group numbered 3,427,665 people, or 53.2% of the population. The Khmou ethnic group numbered 708,412, or 11.0%, while the Hmong ethnic group numbered 595,028, or 9.2%. These three reported groups alone therefore represented different-sized parts of a population that included additional ethnic communities.
The census also recorded religious affiliation. Buddhists numbered 4,201,993, representing 64.7% of the population. People reporting no religion numbered 2,040,365, or 31.4%, and Christians numbered 112,230, or 1.7%.
Ethnicity and religion are separate measures. The figures should not be added together or treated as interchangeable categories: one describes ethnic-group identification, while the other describes religious affiliation.
Births, fertility, and mortality
The Lao PHC 2015 report estimated 183,000 births in the year before the census. The crude birth rate was 28 births per 1,000 population in 2015, down from 35 births per 1,000 in 2005. Rates also varied by location. Vientiane Capital had a crude birth rate of 22 per 1,000, while Xaysomboun had a rate of 45 per 1,000.
The total fertility rate was 3.2 children per woman. Urban women had a rate of 2.6 children per woman; rural women with roads had a rate of 3.5; and rural women without roads had a rate of 4.2. The report’s fertility figures show a clear difference between the urban and least-connected rural categories.
Fertility also varied by age. Women aged 15–19 had 75.6 births per 1,000 women, women aged 20–24 had 164.2 births per 1,000, and women aged 25–29 had 158.4 births per 1,000. The report also recorded a strong association between schooling and total fertility rate: 4.2 children per woman among women with no schooling, 3.2 among women with primary schooling, 2.5 among women with secondary or vocational education, and 2.2 among women with tertiary education.
The crude death rate was 8 deaths per 1,000 population in 2015, while Vientiane Capital’s crude death rate was 5 per 1,000. Several mortality indicators improved between 2005 and 2015. Infant mortality fell from 70 to 57, and under-5 mortality fell from 98 to 86. The report did not attach a unit in the supplied figures for those two indicators; they are presented here as the report’s index values for the stated years.
Female life expectancy at birth rose from 63.0 years in 2005 to 65.2 years in 2015. Male life expectancy rose from 59.1 to 61.8 years over the same period. The maternal mortality ratio fell from 405 per 100,000 live births in 2005 to 206 per 100,000 in 2015. An estimated 376 maternal deaths were reported for the year before the census.
Migration and education
The lifetime migrant share was about 17% of the population. Looking at movement during the preceding decade, about 7.4% of people aged 10 and over were internal migrants. About 4.0% of people aged 10 and over had moved from one province to another. Around 42,000 people moved to Lao PDR from abroad after 2005 and were enumerated in the 2015 census.
Vientiane Capital had about 106,000 movers, equal to 15% of the city’s population aged 10 and over. The migration measures use different reference periods and populations: lifetime migration, movement during the previous 10 years, interprovincial movement, and arrivals from abroad after 2005 are not directly interchangeable.
Literacy among people aged 15 and over was 84.7% in 2015. Female literacy was 79.4%, compared with 90.0% for males, leaving a gender gap of 10.6 percentage points. Overall literacy had risen from 72.7% in 2005 to 84.7% in 2015.
The age-specific figures also show higher literacy among younger adults: among people aged 20–24, literacy exceeded 90%. Among people aged 15–19 in rural areas without roads, literacy reached 87.7%; for young men in that category, it reached 91.7%.
Disability and employment
Disability prevalence among people aged 5 and over was 2.8%. The report classified 1.9% as having mild disability, 0.6% as having moderate disability, and 0.3% as having severe disability. These categories sum to the reported overall prevalence after rounding.
Prevalence differed by settlement type. It was 2.5% in urban areas, 2.9% in rural areas with roads, and 3.3% in rural areas without roads. The figures describe reported disability prevalence among people aged 5 and over, not the share of the total population of all ages.
In the labor force section, 67.7% of people aged 10 and over were usually employed in all areas. Another 1.4% were unemployed, while 29.0% were outside the labor force. The usual employment rate was 61.0% in urban areas and 71.4% in rural areas with roads. Because the measure covers people aged 10 and over and refers to usual status, it is not a direct measure of the adult employment rate or short-term labor-market conditions.
Households and living conditions
The 2015 census counted 1,183,386 private households. One-member households accounted for 6.2% of all households, two-member households for 13.1%, three-member households for 20.5%, four-member households for 18.4%, five-member households for 13.9%, six-member households for 9.6%, and households with seven or more members for 16.0%.
Mean household size also varied by place. Vientiane Capital households averaged 4.6 persons, compared with 5.7 persons in Huaphanh. Room counts show a similarly varied housing profile: 9.71% of households had one room, 27.56% had two rooms, 30.25% had three rooms, 17.29% had four rooms, and 15.20% had five or more rooms. In Vientiane Capital, 28.22% of households had five or more rooms.
Access to improved drinking water sources was reported for 61.4% of households nationwide. The urban share was 90%, compared with 13% among rural households without roads. Vientiane Capital reached 97.3%, while Phongsaly recorded 14.4%.
Improved sanitation facilities were available to 73.2% of households nationwide. Vientiane Capital recorded 97.7%, Phongsaly 43.9%, and Xayabury 91.1%.
Together, these household statistics show why a national average can conceal substantial geographic differences. Urban coverage, particularly in Vientiane Capital, was much higher for improved water and sanitation than the reported figure for rural households without roads. The same census also recorded smaller households in Vientiane Capital than in Huaphanh, linking settlement patterns with differences in household structure and services.