Countries
Key facts
- Capital
- Vientiane
- Region
- Asia, South-Eastern Asia
- Population
- 7,873,046 (2025)
- Area
- 236,800 km²
- Currency
- Lao kip (LAK)
- Languages
- Lao, French, English
- Calling code
- +856
- Internet domain
- .la
- ISO codes
- LA, LAO, 418
- Time zone
- UTC+7:00
- United Nations
- Member state
- Postal code pattern
- ##### (# = digit, @ = letter)
Land and position
Laos covers about 236,800 square kilometres. By area it ranks 84th among the 250 countries and territories on this site. It is a little smaller than Romania and a little larger than Uganda. It shares a land border with 5 neighbours: China, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam. It is landlocked, which means it has no sea coast. Its centre lies at about 18° north, 105° east, in the northern hemisphere.
Neighbours
People
About 7.87 million people live in Laos (World Bank, 2025). That makes it the 103rd most populous of the 246 places on this site with a figure. On average there are 33 people to each square kilometre. About 40 percent of people live in towns and cities (World Bank, 2025). A baby born there can expect to live about 69 years (World Bank, 2024). Languages listed for it: Lao, French, English. A person from Laos is called Laotian.
Money and economy
The currency is the Lao kip (code LAK, symbol ₭). The World Bank puts the size of its economy (GDP) at about US$ 18.3 billion (2025), which is about US$ 2,325 for each person (2025).
Time
Laos uses one time zone, UTC+7:00 (Asia/Vientiane). Clocks stay the same all year: there is no daylight saving time.
Time now: loading
Offsets are for January 2026. See Time Zones for a converter.
Largest cities
| City | People |
|---|---|
| Vientiane | 840,940 |
| Savannakhet | 125,760 |
| Thakhèk | 90,800 |
| Pakse | 77,900 |
| Ban Khoan | 65,348 |
| Xam Nua | 56,900 |
City figures are from GeoNames and count the city itself, not the wider urban area. They can be some years old, so use them to see the order of size.
More in South-Eastern Asia
Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Timor-Leste. See the whole region.
Figures were collected on 11 November 2026 from the World Bank, GeoNames and the open countries data set. See About and data sources. Borders and names follow those sources and do not express any view on disputed territory.