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The availability of published economic statistics emerged gradually with the intensification of French colonial rule, after Laos became a French protectorate in 1893 and subsequently part of French Indochina, together with Tonkin, Annam, Cochinchina and Cambodia. The accumulation of statistical data followed the gradual expansion and intensification of the administration of the colonial government of Indochina in Laos.
Laos was gradually included in the system of reporting administrative social and economic statistics in French Indochina. Some of the administrative statistical data including Cambodia were published in articles in the Bulletin Economique de l’Indochine (1898-1944), which can be consulted here.
The administrative statistical data for Laos were more systematically published in Annuaire Statistique de l’Indochine for 1913-1948. The accumulation and publication of statistical data for Laos beyond administrative data depended on the initiatives for further statistical reporting and analytical activities initiated by the colonial administration in Hanoi.
This continued until the decentralisation of the administration of French Indochina during 1948-1953, after Laos in 1946 had become a constitutional monarchy, gained independence in 1950 and until the dismantling of French Indochina in 1954.
Since then, Laos has had its own statistical service agency as part of the Ministry of Finance, National Economy and Planning. In 1948 it started to publish Bulletin Statistique du Laos and in 1951 Annuaire Statistique du Laos. The agency became the Directorate of Statistics in the Ministry of the National Economy. The new central bank, established in 1954 as the National Bank of Laos, published its regular bulletin with monetary statistics.
Laos experienced political turmoil and civil war during the 1960s, which interrupted the regular collection and publication of statistical data. A new government in 1975 re-established the Department of Statistics as part of the State Planning Board. It changed names several times: 1977 Central Statistical Unit, State Planning Commission; 1987 National Statistical Centre, State Planning Commission; 1992 National Statistical Centre, Planning and Cooperation Commission; 2008 Statistics Division, Ministry of Planning and Investment; 2010 National Statistical Centre (NCS) and currently the Lao Statistics Bureau (LSB) in the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
Since 1975, the activity of Laos’ statistical agency was primarily in support of economic planning in the country. The agency resumed regular publication of statistical data in 2002, with Laos’ 2001 statistical yearbook. A 2005 publication commemorating the change of government in 1975 contains key statistics for the years 1976-2004.
Additional statistics are published on the LSB’s website and on the agency’s statistical data dissemination website. Monetary statistics are also available on the website of the central bank, the Bank of Lao PDR, which succeeded the National Bank of Laos in 1968.
Last update on Sunday 19 April 2026 (02:49) by Pierre van der Eng