ETHNICITY MINORITY DEVELOPMENT PLAN
8.1 ETHNICITY
This section presents ethnicity issues relating to the project and the Ethnic Minority Development Plan (EMDP) for the Resettlement Action Plan. While much of this information has been presented in the volume of the Social Impact Assessment (SIA), it is repeated here to understand the context of the EMDP.
According to the 2005 National Census, there are 49 major ethnic groups. Many of these can be further divided into subgroups. Some anthropologists claim over 200 distinct groups. However, only a few ethnic groups dominate. About 55 percent are Lao, another 11 percent Khmu, and 8 percent Hmong, with these 3 groups alone accounting for a total of 74 percent of the total population. Ethnic Lao are the predominant group in Vientiane Province, while Lao and Hmong are the dominant groups in Xieng Khouang, and Lao and Tai the dominant groups in Bolikhamxay.
Table 8 - 1 below presents the ethnicity of the population of Lao PDR according to major ethno-linguistic groups and main topographical residence.