| Country Information |  Ruler: King Bhumibol Adulyadej (1946)
Prime Minister: Thaksin Shinawatra (2001)
Area: 198,455 sq mi (514,000 sq km)
Monetary unit: baht
Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Bangkok, 8,838,500 (metro. area), 6,610,800 (city proper)
Other large cities:
- Nonthanburi, 304,700;
- Chiang Mai, 175,500
Population (2005 est.): 65,444,371
- growth rate: 0.9%;
- birth rate: 15.7/1000;
- infant mortality rate: 20.5/1000;
- life expectancy: 71.6;
- density per sq mi: 330
Languages:
- Thai (Siamese),
- English (secondary language of the elite),
- ethnic and regional dialects | Ethnicity/race:
- Thai 75%,
- Chinese 14%,
- other 11% |
Religions:
- Buddhist 95%,
- Islam 3.8%,
- Christian 0.5%,
- Hindu 0.1%,
- other 0.6% (1991)
Literacy rate: 96% (2003 est.)
Economic summary:
- GDP/PPP (2004 est.): $524.8 billion; per capita $8,100.
- Real growth rate: 6.1%.
- Inflation: 2.8%.
- Unemployment: 1.5% (Nov. 2004 est.).
- Arable land: 29%.
- Agriculture: rice, cassava (tapioca), rubber, corn, sugarcane, coconuts, soybeans.
- Labor force: 36.43 million (Nov. 2004 est.); agriculture 54%, industry 15%, services 31% (1996 est.).
- Industries: tourism; textiles and garments, agricultural processing, beverages, tobacco, cement, light manufacturing, such as jewelry; electric appliances and components, computers and parts, integrated circuits, furniture, plastics; world's second-largest tungsten producer and third-largest tin producer.
- Natural resources: tin, rubber, natural gas, tungsten, tantalum, timber, lead, fish, gypsum, lignite, fluorite, arable land.
- Exports: $75.99 billion (f.o.b., 2003 est.): computers, transistors, seafood, clothing, rice. Imports: $65.3 billion (f.o.b., 2003 est.): capital goods, intermediate goods and raw materials, consumer goods, fuels.
- Major trading partners: U.S., Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia.
Communications:
- Telephones: main lines in use: 5.6 million (2000); mobile cellular: 3.1 million (2002).
- Radio broadcast stations: AM 204, FM 334, shortwave 6 (1999).
- Radios: 13.96 million (1997).
- Television broadcast stations: 5 (all in Bangkok; plus 131 repeaters) (1997).
- Televisions: 15.19 million (1997).
- Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 15 (2000).
- Internet users: 1.2 million (2001).
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