Luangnamtha
Laos, province, population 199,090, first language Lao.
Data as of 28 Oct 2026 · LA-LM · CLDR 49, Glottolog 5.3, States sheet
Language stack
The roles this state's languages play, with a share where a census gives one.
How this is measured
A label comes from the States sheet and has no share. A share comes from a census and names its basis. Both can exist for one language.
Labels from the States sheet; no census share yet.
Official-language count: 1. Diversity below is country-level.
Languages of Laos
Country-level shares: CLDR, with a census or survey where CLDR has none. They overlap and are never normalised.
How this is measured
Effective number of languages 2.08, Greenberg diversity 0.52, both on the raw shares and country-level.
How far lingua francas reach
Share able to hold a conversation, first or second language.
How this is measured
Each row carries its source tier. A Tier 1 census figure is this state's own; a Tier 3 figure is the country's, not this state's.
No reach figure for Laos yet.
Other states in Laos17
Attapeu [Attapu]Lao
BokeoLao
Borikhamxay [Bolikhamsai]Lao
Champasack [Champasak]Lao
Huaphanh [Houaphan]Lao
Khammuane [Khammouan]Lao
LuangprabangLao
Nakhon Luang Viengchan [Vientiane Capital City]Lao
Oudomxay [Oudomxai]Lao
Phongsaly [Phongsali]Lao
Saravane [Salavan]Lao
SavannakhetLao
Show all 17 states
SekongLao
Viengchan [Vientiane]Lao
Xaisomboun [Saysomboun]Lao
Xayabury [Sainyabuli]Lao
Xiengkhuang [Xiangkhouang]Lao
All states · Countries · Reach
Where these numbers come from
- Unicode CLDR territoryInfo (release 49) (Unicode License v3). Country-level language shares, official status and Tier 3 reach (populationPercent is total speakers, first plus second language).
- Glottolog 5.3 (CC BY 4.0). Language names, ISO 639-3 codes, families.
- Database of International and Intranational Linguistic distances (DICL v2), USITC (CC BY 4.0). Country-pair linguistic proximity (loaded, not yet shown in release one).
- States (ISO 3166-2) sheet, MetroAreas workbook (Citizen of Nowhere, own compilation). States, populations and the four language labels per state.
- Natural Earth 1:110m Admin 0 Countries (nvkelso/natural-earth-vector) (Public domain). World outline for the language maps (world-110m.geojson, properties reduced to iso3 and name).
- Country layer of this site (countries.json workbook population, World Bank iso2 and iso3, OWID country-population) (Citizen of Nowhere, own compilation; World Bank CC BY 4.0; OWID CC BY). Country population, iso2 and /countries slug joined onto languages, countries and families (speakers = share x population).
Labels are the States sheet's. Shares marked country-level are CLDR's for the whole country, not a measurement of this state. See Method.