Social development
Land
![](https://laos.pp.opendevelopmentmekong.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/10/Ethnic-Groups-of-Laos-Akha-Village-150x150.jpg)
Introduction Land use in Laos has recently undergone significant change. While most members of the 50 recognized ethnic groups in Laos making up the Laos population have traditionally had a subsistence lifestyle, collected forest products, and cared for land through shifting (swidden) agriculture, government policies have ...
Social development
![](https://laos.pp.opendevelopmentmekong.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/10/4287410841_60cdc12e83_b-150x150.jpg)
Social development addresses profound social problems, especially poverty, unemployment and social exclusion, and seeks to define poverty across a spectrum of social and structural barriers instead of simply by income levels. Lao PDR has achieved a number of ambitious goals. Poverty levels have halved from ...
Ethnic minorities and indigenous people
![](https://laos.pp.opendevelopmentmekong.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/08/2303446007_eca9b945ee_b-150x150.jpg)
Lao PDR is the most ethnically diverse country in Southeast Asia. Lao people comprise four main ethno-linguistic families: Lao-Tai (62.4 percent), Mon-Khmer (23.7 percent), Hmong-Iu Mien (9.7 percent), and Chine-Tibetan (2.9 percent)1, which are officially divided into 50 ethnic groups2 The 50 ethnic groups in ...