Thailand: Blog 1

          

  Located in the heart of Southeast Asia and run by a monarchy under Bhumibol Adulyadei, since 1946, is the country of Thailand.  Thailand measures 514,000 kilometers. Thailand largely populated by native Thais, making up almost 75% of the entire population. Second largest are Thai Chinese who make up 14% of Thailand’s 67.01 million people. And the ethnically Malay make up just three percent.

Language

The official language of Thailand is Thai, which is a part of the Tai-Kadai language family of East Asia. The alphabet used by the people of Thailand rose to the surface around 1292 A.D. This alphabet, unique to the Thai, was derived the Khmer script. The Khmer script was created through the Brahmic Indian writing system. Thai is the official, and most popular, language in the country but some citizens speak Lao, Mon, Khmer, Viet, Cham, Hmong, Akhan, and Karen.

Population

The population of Thailand was growing at a much greater rate until recently. According to worldpopulationreview.com, the population growth has dropped from 3.1% to 0.4% since 1960. The dramatic fall in the birthrate is claimed to be the result of the government-funded family planning program. This program is continuing to raise awareness and slow birth figures.

Large amounts of people live in the country’s capital, Bangkok, and the surrounding metropolitan region. Bangkok is located in the central part of Thailand and is filled with more than 8 million people. This is close to 13% of Thailand’s entire population. The metropolitan region holds 14 million, 22.2% of the population.

Thailand is the 51^st largest county in the world, as far as physically, but only the 20^th in terms of population. The population density of the country is 132.1 people per square kilometer, putting Thailand in 88^th in terms of population density.

Life Expectancy

AIDS is very present in the nation of Thailand and has reached epidemic proportions. Today, 700,000 Thais have HIV or AIDS. With numbers like this, two percent of the male Thai population and one and a half percent of the female Thai population is living with the virus.

With such a predominate sickness, between 30,000 and 50,000 deaths are caused every year related to AIDS. But the life expectancy looks to be increasing. The current life expectancy is 73.6 years for the total population of Thailand. The male population is expected to live 71.24 years and the female population is expected to live 76.08 years.

What’s Happening?

Currently in Thailand crisis has broken out and citizens are protesting in the streets of Bangkok. The protest is full of young, educated middle-class urban citizens and poorer rural voters. Political division roots the protest. A stable political party backed Yinkluck Shinawatra, the Prime Minister of Thailand, until controversy struck when trying to pass a bill in November. The bill would have allowed the former Prime Minister, Thaksin, to be null of his corruption and conviction and let back into the country. He has been a large influence in the Thai population. The protests were sparked by this attempt because the law was going to protect Thaksin and get him back into an active role in the politics of Thailand. To learn more about the protests, check out the article “Thailand in crisis: What’s happening on the ground and why” at http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/19/world/asia/thailand-explainer-post-election/.