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Laos

OFFICIAL NAME: Lao People's Democratic Republic

DATE OF FORMATION: 1953

POPULATION: 5.8 million

DENSITY: 65 people per square mile

LANGUAGES: Lao, Mon-Khmer, Yao, Vietnamese, Chinese, French

RELIGIONS: Buddhist 85%, Other (including animist) 15%

ETHNIC MIX: Lao Loum 66%, Lao Theung 30%, Other 2%, Lao Soung 2%

GOVERNMENT: No multiparty elections

CURRENCY: New kip

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The Mekong River, Laos's main thoroughfare, feeds the fertile lowlands of the Mekong valley. Two decades of civil war followed independence from France in 1953, and Laos was bombed heavily during the Vietnam War. The communist Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) has held power since 1975. Market-oriented reforms began to be introduced in 1986, while power was handed to a younger generation within the LPRP in the 1990s.