Capital city: Bangkok
Nationality: Thai
Population: 64,865,523 (July 2004 est.)
Life expectancy at birth: total population: 71.24 years; male: 69.07 years; female: 73.53 years (2003 est.)
Ethnic groups that make up the population: Thai 75%, Chinese 14%, other 11%
Religions: Buddhism 95%, Muslim 3.8%, Christianity 0.5%, Hinduism 0.1%, other 0.6% (1991)
Languages: Thai, Chinese, English (secondary language of the elite), ethnic and regional dialects
Literacy rate (Definition: age 15 and over can read and write): total population: 96% male: 97.5% female: 94.6% (2003 est.)
Legal system: based on civil law system, with influences of common law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
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
Agriculture: rice, cassava (tapioca), rubber, corn, sugarcane, coconuts, soybeans
GDP: purchasing power parity - $445.8 billion (2002 est.)
GDP per capita: purchasing power parity - $7,000 (2002 est.)
Currency: baht (THB)
School system: Education in Thailand is free and compulsory for all children between the ages of 7 and 14, but the available school facilities, both public and in Buddhist monasteries, are insufficient to provide a primary education for all children. The literacy rate is nearly 90 per cent, higher than that of most other countries of South East Asia.Elementary and Secondary Schools : In 1992 there were about 6.8 million primary school pupils and 1.1 million secondary school pupils. An additional 973,000 students were enrolled in higher educational institutions.Universities and Colleges : Thailand has several universities, the largest of which include Chulalongkorn University (1917) and Thammasat University (1934) in Bangkok, and Chiang Mai University (1964) in the north. In addition, the Asian Institute of Technology (1959), in Bangkok, enrolled about 1,000 graduate students in the early 1990s.
Family unit (role of women and children): Thai women have not the power but are always the family head and take care about children and finances. Thai society is reluctant against wome n who get divorced. Many women don't divorce in order to avoid gossip and blame. Thai women are not expected to smoke. Thai culture doesn’t accept women smoking. Smoking is often linked to bad girls
Senate, woman comprise 8.1 % of the membership, Administrative positions in various ministries comprise 18.3, Local level, women account for approximately 7% of elected members of provincial, municipal, and subdistrict administrative councils, and 2% of elected subdistrict and village chiefs. At the national level, women comprise 6% of the seats in the House of Representatives, 22 out of 393.
Sons were given more freedom from their adolescent years, while daughters were given much more responsibilities and much less freedom to socialize outside the home. One of the reasons found was the fear by parents that their daughters would be enticed or forced into premarital sex. And even when such incident did not occur, gossip in the community concerning the "loose" behavior of the daughters would affect the parents' moral standing in the community. This fear is clearly expressed in the common traditional Thai saying that "having a daughter is like having a toilet in front of one's house.”
Misc. interesting facts: New Year:
Songkran, is celebrated in mid-April by 'bathing' Buddha images, paying respects to monks and elders by sprinkling water over their hands.
A Rocket Festival is held in May in the country's north-east, using a volatile mixture of bamboo and gunpowder to convince the sky to send rain for the new rice season.
Vegetarian Festival in Phuket and Trang, during which devout Chinese Buddhists eat only vegetarian food, runs for nine days from late-September to early-October.
Elephant Roundup in Surin in November is an elephantine festival popular with the kind of people who enjoy watching pachyderms play soccer.
Loi Krathong Festival, held after the rainy season (usually in November), candle-lit floats are cast into waterways to bring good fortune for the coming year.
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.
Handicrafts: Handmade umbrellas have long played a role in Thai traditional life, used either in ceremonies or, more prosaically, to protect the owner from sun and rain. The umbrellas come in all sizes, from tiny ones suitable for a child to huge ones measuring two or three meters across, and in a great variety of designs. Other crafts: Wood carvings, Dolls, Reed/Mats, Pottery, Toys, Nielloware, Leather Carving and Bamboo Basketry.
References:
CIA Fact book http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ch.html
