Laos
Lao People's Democratic Republic
- Capital
- Vientiane
- Region
- South-Eastern Asia
- Population, 2025
- 7.9 million
- Currency
- LAK
- Area
- 236,800 km²
Across Laos's 2 priced cities, one person needs about $1,108 a month, rent included; the average net salary is $268.
Livability
The same seven domains as for cities, scored at country level; safety falls back to the homicide rate where Numbeo has no survey.
- Purchasing power25%21
- Safety20%64
- Health care15%No data
- Climate10%No data
- Air quality10%93
- Connectivity10%31
- Cost10%66
How each domain is scored
- Purchasing power, 25%
- What a local net salary buys against local prices, as a percentile.
- Safety, 20%
- Numbeo safety index for the city, or for its country when the city has no survey.
- Health care, 15%
- Numbeo health care index, city first, then country.
- Climate, 10%
- Numbeo climate index where surveyed, otherwise a comfort score from NASA climate normals.
- Air quality, 10%
- 30-day mean US AQI on a 0-100 scale: 100 at AQI 25 or cleaner, 0 at 150 or worse.
- Connectivity, 10%
- Percentile of median fixed broadband download speed, city first, then country.
- Cost, 10%
- Cheaper places score higher: the percentile of the cost-of-living plus rent index, inverted.
What it costs
Averages over the country’s cities, weighted by population. New York = 100.
Economy
World Bank development indicators; each figure is the latest year with data.
Taxes
Headline rates side by side from three references, with the source of each.
- Top income tax rate
- 25%
- SourceTrading Economics
- Corporate tax
- 20%
- SourceTrading Economics
- VAT or sales tax
- 10%
- SourcePwC
- Capital gains, individuals
- 2%
- SourcePwC
- Social security, employee
- 5.5%
- SourceTrading Economics
- Social security, employer
- 6%
- SourceTrading Economics
Headline statutory rates as of Sep 2026; brackets, allowances and regional taxes change what a given person pays.
Safety and internet
Numbeo’s crime survey, the World Bank homicide series and the Speedtest Global Index.
Safety
- Safety indexNumbeo, higher is safer
- 63.8
- Crime indexNumbeo, lower is better
- 36.2
- HomicidesPer 100,000 people
- —
Internet
- Fixed downloadMbps, median, #103 worldwide
- 60
- Mobile downloadMbps, median, #84 worldwide
- 45
- Change in a yearFixed download speed
- +26%
Cities in Laos
Sort by any column. Livability and cost use the same scales as every city page.
| 1Savannakhet | 66 | — | — | — | — | 125.8K | Low confidence |
| 2Vientiane | 51 | 30.8 | $645 | $268 | 27.6 | 840.9K | Medium confidence, 11 contributors |
| 3Pakse | 46 | — | — | — | — | 77.9K | Low confidence, 0 contributors |
| 4Luang Namtha (Nam Tha) | 46 | — | — | — | — | — | Low confidence, 0 contributors |
| 5Luang Prabang | 35 | 31.1 | $1,131 | $200 | 14.3 | 55K | Low confidence, 2 contributors |