Groups

Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked socialist republic in southeast Asia. Laos traces its history to the Kingdom of Lan Xang, which existed from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. After a period as a French colony, it gained independence in 1949. A long civil war ended when the communist Pathet Lao came to power in 1975. Private enterprise has increased since the mid-1980s, but development has been hampered by poor communications in the heavily forested and mountainous landscape. Despite this, the economy of Laos grew at 7.2% in 2006, 35th fastest in the world. Eighty percent of the employed practice subsistence agriculture. The country's ethnic make-up is extremely diverse, with only around 70% belonging to the largest ethnic group, the Lao.