Demographics of Laos

Demographics of Laos
Population pyramid of Laos in 2020
Population	7,443,000 (2022 est.)
Growth rate	1.41% (2022 est.)
Birth rate	20.9 births/1,000 population (2022 est.)
Death rate	6.8 deaths/1,000 population (2022 est.)
Life expectancy	67 years (2022 est.)
• male	66 years (2022 est.)
• female	69 years (2022 est.)
Fertility rate	2.48 children born/woman (2022 est.)
Infant mortality rate	36.8 deaths/1,000 live births (2022 est.)
Age structure
0–14 years	30.80% (2022 est.)
15–64 years	64.56% (2022 est.)
65 and over	4.68% (2022 est.)
Sex ratio
Total	1.00 male(s)/female (2022 est.)
At birth	1.04 male(s)/female (2022 est.)
Nationality
Nationality	Laotian
Major ethnic	Lao (53.2%)
Source: LAOSIS[1]

Laos is a country in Southeast Asia. The country's population was estimated at about 7.43 million in 2021, dispersed unevenly across the country. Most people live in valleys of the Mekong River and its tributaries. Vientiane Prefecture, which includes Vientiane, the capital and largest city of the country, had 820,924 residents as of the 2015 census. The country's population density is 26.7/km².

As per the 2015 census, the total population was 6.49 million (3.24 million females, 3.25 million males), an increase of 870 thousand since the previous 2005 census.