Increased access to public services in Laos is distorting broader inequality
Since the early 1990s, five rounds of the Lao Expenditure and Consumption Surveys have shown that measured inequality has increased at the national level — within both rural and urban areas, within almost all provinces of Laos and within each of the four major ethnic groups of the Lao population.
At the same time, the estimated incidence of absolute poverty has halved, from 46 percent of the population to 23 percent.
