Laos
Laos (officially Lao People's Democratic Republic) is a country in South-Eastern Asia, with its capital at Vientiane, and is home to roughly 7.8M people.
Lao is the official language; the currency in circulation is Lao kip (₭); people from here are called Laotian.
- »It is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia.
- »Laos is among the most heavily bombed countries per capita in history, and unexploded ordnance remains a hazard.
Laos touches five neighbours: Cambodia to the south, China to the north, Myanmar to the northwest, Thailand to the southwest and Vietnam to the southeast. Directions run from one centre to the other.
Vientiane sits on a bend of the Mekong facing Thailand. Its name derives from a Pali phrase meaning 'city of sandalwood'.
228,947 km² (88,397 sq mi), 82nd largest of 198 countries and territories on file, almost exactly the size of Romania.
Population 7,769,819, 103rd of 198 on file. That averages 34 per km² (88 per sq mi).
The white disc is the full moon over the Mekong, and a symbol of unity. Laos is one of the few communist states whose flag carries no red star.