ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to analyse the present national (ethnic) policy of the Lao government and its influence on the ethnic situation in the country.
The territory of Laos, the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), covers 236,800 square kilometres. Its population was officially estin1ated in the middle of 1989 at 4,053 million persons (khomun sathiti tonto, 1990: 14). Hence its average population density was about 17 per square kilometre. In 1989, the population of the LPDR consisted of 1986 million male (49 per cent) and 2067 million female persons (51 per cent) (ibid.). The level of infant mortality was relatively high - about 118 (down to 106 in 1992 (Denisovitch 1993b: 26)) per 1,000 infants under one year. In spite of the lowering of the general mortality rate from 24 to 16.6 per 1,000 among children under five in recent years, at 156 per 1,000 it is still one of the highest in Asian countries (though lower than Can1bodia). Average lifeexpectancy is 50 years. Despite all these unfavourable demographic indicators, the population of the LPDR is growing at an average of about 2 per cent a year. The population is distributed extren1ely unevenly. A considerable portion of the population is concentrated in the valleys of the Mekong and its tributaries along the Thai border. The rest of the territory is sparsely populated, especially in the mountainous northern provinces of the country. Vast areas in eastern Laos became depopulated as a result of the Indo-China wars.
