Background A unified Thai kingdom was established in the mid-14th century. Known as Siam until 1939, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country never to have been taken over by a European power. A bloodless revolution in 1932 led to a constitutional monarchy. In alliance with Japan during World War II, Thailand became a US ally following the conflict. Thailand is currently facing separatist violence in its southern ethnic Malay-Muslim provinces. The People | Population | 65,068,149 | | Age structure | 0-14 years: 21.6% (male 7,195,750/female 6,870,858)
15-64 years: 70.1% (male 22,547,238/female 23,092,881)
65 years and over: 8.2% (male 2,437,640/female 2,923,782) (2007 est.) | | Life expectancy at birth | total population: 72.55 years
male: 70.24 years
female: 74.98 years (2007 est.) | Population growth rate | 0.663% (2007 est.) | | Ethnic groups | Thai 75%, Chinese 14%, other 11% | | Religions | Buddhist 94.6%, Muslim 4.6%, Christian 0.7%, other 0.1% (2000 census) | | Population below poverty line | 10% (2004 est.) | | People living with HIV/AIDS | 570,000 (2003 est.) | | HIV/AIDS - deaths | 58,000 (2003 est.) | | Mobile phones in use | 27.379 million (2005) |
Data (Background & The People) provided by The World Factbook |