Demographics of Thailand
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2008) |
| Life in Thailand |
|---|
| Cuisine |
| Culture |
| Dance |
| Puppet |
| Instruments |
| Demographics |
| Economy |
| Education |
| Film |
| Holidays |
| Languages |
| Literature |
| Media |
| Monarchy |
| Music |
| Politics |
| Religion |
| Society |
| Sport |
| edit box |
Thailand's population is relatively homogeneous, however this is changing due to immigration. More than 85% speak a Thai language and share a common culture. This core population includes the central Thai (33.7% of the population, including Bangkok), Northeastern Thai or Lao (34.2%), northern Thai (18.8%), and southern Thai (13.3%).
The language of the central Thai population is the language taught in schools and used in government. Several other small Tai groups include the Shan, Lue, and Phutai.
Up to 14% of Thai are of significant Chinese heritage, but the Sino-Thai community is the best integrated in Southeast Asia. Malay-speaking Muslims of the south comprise another significant minority group (2.3%). Other groups include the Khmer; the Mon, who are substantially assimilated with the Thai; and the Vietnamese. Smaller mountain-dwelling tribes, such as the Hmong and Mein, as well as the Karen, number about 788,024. Some 300,000 Hmong, who ironically are natives to the area longer than the Thais themselves, are to receive citizenship by 2010.
Thailand is also home to a significant number of registered foreigners from Asia, Europe, and North America, as well as an estimated several hundred thousand illegal immigrants, some of which are natives. Increasing numbers of migrants from Burma, Laos, and Cambodia as well as nations such as Nepal, India, and expats from the West and Japan have pushed the number of non-nationals residing in Thailand to close to 2 million in 2008, from about 1.3 million in the year 2000. A rising awareness of minorities is slowly changing attitudes in a country where non-nationals, some having resided in what is now Thailand longer than the Thais themselves, are barred from numerous privileges ranging from healthcare, ownership of property (land, vehicles), or schooling in their own language.
The population is mostly rural, concentrated in the rice-growing areas of the central, northeastern, and northern regions. However, as Thailand continues to industrialize, its urban population - 31.1% of total population, principally in the Bangkok area - is growing.
Thailand's highly successful government-sponsored family planning program has resulted in a dramatic decline in population growth from 3.1% in 1960 to around 0.5% today. Life expectancy also has risen, a positive reflection of Thailand's efforts at public health education. However, the AIDS epidemic has had a major impact on the Thai population. Today, over 700,000 Thais live with HIV or AIDS - approximately two percent of adult men and 1.5 percent of adult women. Each year until at least 2006, 30-50,000 Thais will die from AIDS-related causes. Ninety percent of them will be aged 20-24, the most productive sector of the workforce. The situation could have been worse; an aggressive public education campaign in the early 1990s reduced the number of new HIV infections from 150,000 to 25,000 annually.
The 1997 constitution mandated 12 years of free education, however, this is not provided universally. Education accounts for 19% of total government expenditures.
Theravada Buddhism is the official religion of Thailand and is officially the religion of about 97% of its people. However, the true figure lies closer to 85%, Muslims are some 10% and 5% other religions including Christianity, Hinduism, especially among immigrants. In addition to Malay speaking Thais and other southerners who are Muslim, the Cham of Cambodia in recent years begun a large scale influx into Thailand. The government permits religious diversity, and other major religions are represented, though there is much social tension, especially in the South. Spirit worship and animism are widely practiced.
Population: 65,493,298
note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2008 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 21.2% (male 7,104,776/female 6,781,453)
15-64 years: 70.3% (male 22,763,274/female 23,304,793)
65 years and over: 8.5% (male 2,516,721/female 3,022,281) (2008 est.)
Population growth rate: 0.64% (2008 est.)
Birth rate: 13.57 births/1,000 population (2008 est.)
In 2006, the birth rate was 10.85/1000 pop. [1] . NE had a TBR of 12.24, while Bangkok had 8.83.
Death rate: 7.14 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.)
Net migration rate: 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female
total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2008 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 18.23 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 72.83 years
male: 70.51 years
female: 75.27 years (2008 est.)
Total fertility 1.64 children born/woman (2008 est.)
Nationality:
noun: Thai (singular and plural)
adjective: Thai
Ethnic groups: Tai (including Lao, who make up about ⅓ of the Thai population) 75%, Chinese 14%, other 11%
Religions: Buddhism 94.6%, Islam (See Islam in Thailand) 4.6%, Christianity 0.7%, Hinduism 0.1%, other (including Judaism) 0.1% (2000)
Languages: Thai (including Isan), English (secondary language), Mandarin, Vietnamese, ethnic and regional dialects
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 92.6%
male: 94.9%
female: 90.5% (2002 est.)
|
||||||||
