It is reckoned that Laos has somewhere between 70 to 100 ethnic groups and these are divided into four major cultural-linguistic collections. Hill tribes make up a significant proportion of the population,though precisely how many ethnic group actually exist in Laos remains uncertain;figures range from a government its of 68 estimates by independent ethnographers of 120 or more.Laos' rich and complex linguistic mixture is such that, in extreme cases, some minorities consist of only a few hundred people, and only occupy a particular mountaintop or valley.
The Lao-Loom, or lowland Lao, speak Laotian Thai and live in the lowlands and cities and along the MeKong River. The Lao-Loom comprise about two-thirds of the country's total population.