In brief
The largest documented number lives in Lao People's Democratic Republic: 22,759 people in the 2005 census.
Main language: Eastern Katu. Glottolog classifies it in the Austroasiatic family.
Where they live: census figures
Each figure comes from the country's official census. Censuses define belonging differently (self-identification, citizenship, mother tongue, ancestry); the type is given on each row.
Lao People's Democratic Republic
22,759
Languages and their lineage
Eastern Katu
- Austroasiaticaust1305
- Katuickatu1271
- Katukatu1272
- Nuclear Katunucl1297
- Eastern Katueast1236
Western Katu
- Austroasiaticaust1305
- Katuickatu1271
- Katukatu1272
- Nuclear Katunucl1297
- Western Katuwest2398
Vietnamese
- Austroasiaticaust1305
- Vieticviet1250
- Viet-Muongviet1251
- Vietnameseviet1252
Lao
- Tai-Kadaitaik1256
- Kam-Taikamt1241
- Daic-Beicdaic1238
- Daicdaic1237
- Central-Southwestern Taicent2251
- Wenma-Southwestern Taiwenm1239
- Sapa-Southwestern Taisapa1255
- Southwestern Taisout3184
- Southwestern Thai PHsput1235
- Lao-Thailaot1235
- Laolaoo1244
People-to-language links: Wikidata (properties P103 and P2936), checked against ISO 639-3 codes. Language classification: Glottolog 5.3.
Peoples of the same language family
Sources
- United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Lao People's Democratic Republic, Census - de jure - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
- Hammarström H., Forkel R., Haspelmath M., Bank S. (2026). Glottolog 5.3. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. glottolog.org (CC BY 4.0)