Matchup file

Laos vs Thailand

115 shared metrics.

LaosLeads in 38

vs115 shared

ThailandLeads in 77

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Thailand leads by 39 metrics. Use the same instinct in a quick real-data brawl.

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Country briefing

What matters for both sides

Short real-world notes so the comparison reads like more than a stat strip.

Laos

Quick notes before you compare the numbers.

Identity

Formal name: Lao People's Democratic Republic.

CIA 2026

Identity

Name origin: name means "Land of the Lao [people].

CIA 2026

Thailand

Quick notes before you compare the numbers.

Identity

Formal name: Kingdom of Thailand.

CIA 2026

Identity

Name origin: the name means "Land of the Thai," referring to the local population.

CIA 2026

Analysis

Thailand leads in 77 of 115 shared metrics, while Laos leads in 38.

Laos's Capital Elevation is 86.0x that of Thailand (174 m vs 2.0 m).

Laos's Inflation Rate is 15.5x that of Thailand (23.1% vs 1.4%).

Laos's Firms Hit by Power Outages is 3.8x that of Thailand (41.46% of firms vs 8.6% of firms).

Laos's Infant Mortality is 3.4x that of Thailand (35.2 per 1k births vs 8.0 per 1k births).

Laos's Child Mortality is 3.2x that of Thailand (39 per 1k births vs 9.2 per 1k births).

Key Comparisons

Capital ElevationLaos leads

Laos

174 m

Thailand

2.0 m

Inflation RateLaos leads

Laos

23.1%

Thailand

1.4%

Firms Hit by Power OutagesLaos leads

Laos

41.46% of firms

Thailand

8.6% of firms

Infant MortalityLaos leads

Laos

35.2 per 1k births

Thailand

8.0 per 1k births

Child MortalityLaos leads

Laos

39 per 1k births

Thailand

9.2 per 1k births

Current Account Balance (% of GDP)Laos leads

Laos

11.4% of GDP

Thailand

3.1% of GDP

All Metrics

Capital Elevation

Laos

174 m

Thailand

2.0 m

8600% higher

Inflation Rate

Laos

23.1%

Thailand

1.4%

1550% higher

Firms Hit by Power Outages

Laos

41.46% of firms

Thailand

8.6% of firms

382% higher

Infant Mortality

Laos

35.2 per 1k births

Thailand

8.0 per 1k births

340% higher

Child Mortality

Laos

39 per 1k births

Thailand

9.2 per 1k births

324% higher

Current Account Balance (% of GDP)

Laos

11.4% of GDP

Thailand

3.1% of GDP

268% higher

Teen Birth Rate

Laos

81.65 per 1k

Thailand

26.14 per 1k

212% higher

Firms Asked for Bribes

Laos

30.6% of firms

Thailand

9.9% of firms

211% higher

Renewable Energy (%)

Laos

49.2%

Thailand

19%

159% higher

Minimum Paid Vacation Days

Laos

15 days/yr

Thailand

6.0 days/yr

150% higher

FDI Inflows (% GDP)

Laos

6.0% of GDP

Thailand

2.7% of GDP

120% higher

Beer Consumption

Laos

3.7 L/person/yr

Thailand

1.8 L/person/yr

109% higher

Youth Population (%)

Laos

30.2%

Thailand

14.75%

105% higher

Merchant Fleet Size

Thailand

Laos

1.0

Thailand

884

100% lower

Scientific Publications

Thailand

Laos

83.93

Thailand

18.5K

100% lower

Tourism Revenue

Thailand

Laos

$227,000,000

Thailand

$15,360,000,000

99% lower

Air Passengers

Thailand

Laos

842.3K

Thailand

51.92M

98% lower

Solar Electricity Share

Thailand

Laos

0.17%

Thailand

5.3%

97% lower

GDP (Nominal)

Thailand

Laos

$16,502,933,121.34

Thailand

$526,517,658,841.68

97% lower

Birth Rate

Laos

19.22 per 1k

Thailand

9.8 per 1k

96% higher

Comparison of Laos and Thailand across 115 metrics
				Winner
Capital Elevation	174 m	2.0 m	8600% higher	Laos
Inflation Rate	23.1%	1.4%	1550% higher	Laos
Firms Hit by Power Outages	41.46% of firms	8.6% of firms	382% higher	Laos
Infant Mortality	35.2 per 1k births	8.0 per 1k births	340% higher	Laos
Child Mortality	39 per 1k births	9.2 per 1k births	324% higher	Laos
Current Account Balance (% of GDP)	11.4% of GDP	3.1% of GDP	268% higher	Laos
Teen Birth Rate	81.65 per 1k	26.14 per 1k	212% higher	Laos
Firms Asked for Bribes	30.6% of firms	9.9% of firms	211% higher	Laos
Renewable Energy (%)	49.2%	19%	159% higher	Laos
Minimum Paid Vacation Days	15 days/yr	6.0 days/yr	150% higher	Laos
FDI Inflows (% GDP)	6.0% of GDP	2.7% of GDP	120% higher	Laos
Beer Consumption	3.7 L/person/yr	1.8 L/person/yr	109% higher	Laos
Youth Population (%)	30.2%	14.75%	105% higher	Laos
Merchant Fleet Size	1.0	884	100% lower	Thailand
Scientific Publications	83.93	18.5K	100% lower	Thailand
Tourism Revenue	$227,000,000	$15,360,000,000	99% lower	Thailand
Air Passengers	842.3K	51.92M	98% lower	Thailand
Solar Electricity Share	0.17%	5.3%	97% lower	Thailand
GDP (Nominal)	$16,502,933,121.34	$526,517,658,841.68	97% lower	Thailand
Birth Rate	19.22 per 1k	9.8 per 1k	96% higher	Laos
Freedom of Expression Index	0.03	0.59	95% lower	Thailand
Irrigated Land	4.4K km²	64.2K km²	93% lower	Thailand
EV Chargers per 100,000 PeopleSource: © OpenStreetMap contributors - Open Database License (ODbL)	0.03 per 100k people	0.33 per 100k people	92% lower	Thailand
Total CO2 Emissions	26.06 Mt CO2e	283.81 Mt CO2e	91% lower	Thailand
Milk Consumption per Person	2.9 kg/person/yr	29.35 kg/person/yr	90% lower	Thailand
Railway Length	422 km	4.1K km	90% lower	Thailand
Population	7.95M	70.03M	89% lower	Thailand
Health Spending Per Capita	$41.35	$369.98	89% lower	Thailand
Water Withdrawal	7.3 B m³	57.31 B m³	87% lower	Thailand
Credit Card Ownership	1.1% of adults	8.0% of adults	86% lower	Thailand
Forest Coverage (%)	71.46%	38.69%	85% higher	Laos
Water Stress (%)	3.9%	25.53%	85% lower	Thailand
Broadband Access (%)	2.7 per 100 people	16 per 100 people	83% lower	Thailand
Military Spending	0.19% of GDP	1.1% of GDP	82% lower	Thailand
Airports	20	106	81% lower	Thailand
Agricultural Land (%)	9.9%	43.8%	77% lower	Thailand
Electric Generating Capacity	12.74M kW	55.97M kW	77% lower	Thailand
Population Density	33.21 /km²	140.35 /km²	76% lower	Thailand
Unemployment Rate	1.2%	0.69%	76% higher	Laos
High-Tech Exports (%)	7.4%	28.31%	74% lower	Thailand
Electricity Generation	52.3 TWh	199.55 TWh	74% lower	Thailand
Armed Forces Personnel	129.0K	455.0K	72% lower	Thailand
GNI Per Capita	$2,000	$7,100	72% lower	Thailand
Suicide Rate	4.6 per 100k	16.59 per 100k	72% lower	Thailand
Mobile Money Accounts	11.84% of adults	41.68% of adults	72% lower	Thailand
ATMs per 100,000 Adults	28.67 per 100k	97.9 per 100k	71% lower	Thailand
Elderly Population (%)	4.7%	15.36%	70% lower	Thailand
Electoral Democracy Index	0.14	0.42	68% lower	Thailand
Digital Payments Used	26.53% of adults	82.75% of adults	68% lower	Thailand
University Enrollment Rate	14.88%	44.98%	67% lower	Thailand
Liberal Democracy Index	0.11	0.31	65% lower	Thailand
GDP Growth Rate	4.1%	2.5%	62% higher	Laos
Health Spending (% GDP)	2.0% of GDP	5.4% of GDP	62% lower	Thailand
Mobile Subscriptions (%)	65 per 100 people	161 per 100 people	60% lower	Thailand
GDP Per Capita (PPP)	$9,775.83	$24,712.07	60% lower	Thailand
Electricity Use (Per Capita)	1.3K kWh/person	3.0K kWh/person	57% lower	Thailand
Electricity Carbon Intensity	232.08 gCO2/kWh	545.74 gCO2/kWh	57% lower	Thailand
Energy Use (Per Capita)	815.09 kg oil eq/person	1.9K kg oil eq/person	56% lower	Thailand
Land Area	230.8K km²	510.9K km²	55% lower	Thailand
Education Spending (% GDP)	1.2% of GDP	2.5% of GDP	51% lower	Thailand
UNESCO World Heritage Sites	4.0 sites	8.0 sites	50% lower	Thailand
Firms Making Informal Payments	26.44% of firms	17.57% of firms	50% higher	Laos
Vehicles per 1,000 People	267.78 per 1k people	526.93 per 1k people	49% lower	Thailand
Obesity Rate	7.8%	14.51%	47% lower	Thailand
Youth Unemployment Rate	2.4% of youth labor force	4.5% of youth labor force	47% lower	Thailand
Tobacco Use Prevalence	25.4% of adults	17.4% of adults	46% higher	Laos
Hospital Beds (per 1,000)	1.3 per 1k	2.3 per 1k	43% lower	Thailand
Informal Employment Share	90.49% of employed people	63.17% of employed people	43% higher	Laos
Smoking Rate	27.2%	19.2%	42% higher	Laos
Fertility Rate	2.2 children/woman	1.6 children/woman	41% higher	Laos
Spirits Consumption	3.0 L/person/yr	4.9 L/person/yr	40% lower	Thailand
Median Age	24.3 years	39.7 years	39% lower	Thailand
Doctors (per 1,000)	0.33 per 1k	0.54 per 1k	39% lower	Thailand
Insufficient Physical Activity	15.58% of adults	24.64% of adults	37% lower	Thailand
Urban Population (%)	39.56%	61.87%	36% lower	Thailand
Alcohol Consumption	10.82 L/adult/yr	8.0 L/adult/yr	35% higher	Laos
Road Traffic Death Rate	16.4 per 100k	25.4 per 100k	35% lower	Thailand
Coal Electricity Share	23.28%	17.83%	31% higher	Laos
Internet Users (%)	64%	90.87%	30% lower	Thailand
Air Pollution (PM2.5)	22.32 µg/m³	31.01 µg/m³	28% lower	Thailand
Women's Political Empowerment	0.51	0.69	26% lower	Thailand
Women in Senior Management	25.68% of managers	34.91% of managers	26% lower	Thailand
Death Rate	6.1 per 1k	8.1 per 1k	25% lower	Thailand
Border Neighbors	5.0	4.0	25% higher	Laos
Dependency Ratio	53.53% of working-age pop.	43.09% of working-age pop.	24% higher	Laos
Human Development Index	0.62	0.80	23% lower	Thailand
Firms with Female Top Manager	50.69% of firms	64.84% of firms	22% lower	Thailand
Tax Revenue (% GDP)	12.11% of GDP	15.26% of GDP	21% lower	Thailand
Political Corruption Index	0.77	0.64	20% higher	Laos
Forest Area	164.9K km²	197.7K km²	17% lower	Thailand
Adult Literacy Rate	75.64%	91.1%	17% lower	Thailand
Seafood Consumption per Person	24.01 kg/person/yr	28.48 kg/person/yr	16% lower	Thailand
CO2 Per Capita	3.1 t/person/yr	3.7 t/person/yr	16% lower	Thailand
Women in Parliament (%)	21.95%	19.4%	13% higher	Laos
Life Evaluation Score	5.5 pts	6.3 pts	12% lower	Thailand
Meat Consumption per Person	30.41 kg/person/yr	27.37 kg/person/yr	11% higher	Laos
Sanitation Access (%)	88.73%	99.35%	11% lower	Thailand
Life Expectancy	69.0 years	76.4 years	10% lower	Thailand
Highest Elevation	2.8K m	2.6K m	10% higher	Laos
Hypertension Prevalence	28.4% of adults	26% of adults	9% higher	Laos
Land Border Length	5.3K km	5.7K km	7% lower	Thailand
Government Debt (% GDP)	58.4% of GDP	62.2% of GDP	6% lower	Thailand
Can Raise Emergency Money	93.29% of adults	88.56% of adults	5% higher	Laos
Electricity Access (%)	96.5%	100%	4% lower	Thailand
Corruption Perceptions Index	34 pts	33 pts	3% higher	Laos
Average Weekly Work Hours	41.53 hrs/week	42.53 hrs/week	2% lower	Thailand
Protected Land (%)	18.8%	18.4%	2% higher	Laos
Food Waste per Person	174.08 kg/person/yr	176.25 kg/person/yr	1% lower	Thailand
Time Zones Count	2.0 time zones	2.0 time zones	equal	Laos
Coastline Length	0 km	3.2K km	ranked lower	Thailand
Wind Electricity Share	0%	1.8%	ranked lower	Thailand
Nobel Laureates Born per Million People	0 per 1M people	0 per 1M people	ranked higher	Laos
Lowest Elevation	70 m	0 m	ranked higher	Laos
Official Languages Count	1.0	1.0	equal	Laos
McDonald's Outlets per Million PeopleSource: © OpenStreetMap contributors - Open Database License (ODbL)	0 per 1M people	2.4 per 1M people	ranked lower	Thailand

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Laos Thailand

Analysis

Thailand leads in 77 of 115 shared metrics, while Laos leads in 38.

Laos's Capital Elevation is 86.0x that of Thailand (174 m vs 2.0 m).

Laos's Inflation Rate is 15.5x that of Thailand (23.1% vs 1.4%).

Laos's Firms Hit by Power Outages is 3.8x that of Thailand (41.46% of firms vs 8.6% of firms).

Laos's Infant Mortality is 3.4x that of Thailand (35.2 per 1k births vs 8.0 per 1k births).

Laos's Child Mortality is 3.2x that of Thailand (39 per 1k births vs 9.2 per 1k births).

Key Comparisons

Capital ElevationLaos leads

Laos

174 m

Thailand

2.0 m

Inflation RateLaos leads

Laos

23.1%

Thailand

1.4%

Firms Hit by Power OutagesLaos leads

Laos

41.46% of firms

Thailand

8.6% of firms

Infant MortalityLaos leads

Laos

35.2 per 1k births

Thailand

8.0 per 1k births

Child MortalityLaos leads

Laos

39 per 1k births

Thailand

9.2 per 1k births

Current Account Balance (% of GDP)Laos leads

Laos

11.4% of GDP

Thailand

3.1% of GDP

Capital Elevation

174 m

2.0 m

Inflation Rate

23.1%

1.4%

Firms Hit by Power Outages

41.46% of firms

8.6% of firms

Infant Mortality

35.2 per 1k births

8.0 per 1k births

Child Mortality

39 per 1k births

9.2 per 1k births

Current Account Balance (% of GDP)

11.4% of GDP

3.1% of GDP

Teen Birth Rate

81.65 per 1k

26.14 per 1k

Firms Asked for Bribes

30.6% of firms

9.9% of firms

Renewable Energy (%)

49.2%

19%

Minimum Paid Vacation Days

15 days/yr

6.0 days/yr

FDI Inflows (% GDP)

6.0% of GDP

2.7% of GDP

Beer Consumption

3.7 L/person/yr

1.8 L/person/yr

Youth Population (%)

30.2%

14.75%

Merchant Fleet Size

1.0

884

Scientific Publications

83.93

18.5K

Tourism Revenue

$227,000,000

$15,360,000,000

Air Passengers

842.3K

51.92M

Solar Electricity Share

0.17%

5.3%

GDP (Nominal)

$16,502,933,121.34

$526,517,658,841.68

Birth Rate

19.22 per 1k

9.8 per 1k

Laos vs Thailand

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What matters for both sides

Laos

Thailand

Analysis

Key Comparisons

All Metrics

Capital Elevation

Inflation Rate

Firms Hit by Power Outages

Infant Mortality

Child Mortality

Current Account Balance (% of GDP)

Teen Birth Rate

Firms Asked for Bribes

Renewable Energy (%)

Minimum Paid Vacation Days

FDI Inflows (% GDP)

Beer Consumption

Youth Population (%)

Merchant Fleet Size

Scientific Publications

Tourism Revenue

Air Passengers

Solar Electricity Share

GDP (Nominal)

Birth Rate

Freedom of Expression Index

Irrigated Land

EV Chargers per 100,000 People

Total CO2 Emissions

Milk Consumption per Person

Railway Length

Population

Health Spending Per Capita

Water Withdrawal

Credit Card Ownership

Forest Coverage (%)

Water Stress (%)

Broadband Access (%)

Military Spending

Airports

Agricultural Land (%)

Electric Generating Capacity

Population Density

Unemployment Rate

High-Tech Exports (%)

Electricity Generation

Armed Forces Personnel

GNI Per Capita

Suicide Rate

Mobile Money Accounts

ATMs per 100,000 Adults

Elderly Population (%)

Electoral Democracy Index

Digital Payments Used

University Enrollment Rate

Liberal Democracy Index

GDP Growth Rate

Health Spending (% GDP)

Mobile Subscriptions (%)

GDP Per Capita (PPP)

Electricity Use (Per Capita)

Electricity Carbon Intensity

Energy Use (Per Capita)

Land Area

Education Spending (% GDP)

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Firms Making Informal Payments

Vehicles per 1,000 People

Obesity Rate

Youth Unemployment Rate

Tobacco Use Prevalence

Hospital Beds (per 1,000)

Informal Employment Share

Smoking Rate

Fertility Rate

Spirits Consumption

Median Age