Description

GEO2_LA identifies the household's district within the Lao People's Democratic Republic in all sample years. Districts are the second level administrative units of the country. GEO2_LA is spatially harmonized to account for political boundary changes across census years. Some detail is lost in harmonization; see the comparability discussion. A GIS map (in shapefile format), corresponding to GEO2_LA can be downloaded from the GIS Boundary files page in the IPUMS International web site.

The full set of geography variables for the Lao People's Democratic Republic can be found in the IPUMS International Geography variables list. For cross-national geographic analysis on the first and second major administrative level refer to GEOLEV1, and GEOLEV2. More information on IPUMS-International geography can be found here.

Comparability — General

Where boundaries changed over time, units were harmonized to create units with boundaries that remain stable over time.

Boundary changes for GEO2_LA are too numerous to list here, but users should be aware that there were changes over time.

Xaisômboun special region was dissolved in 2006, with Longsan, Xaysomboun, Phun, and Hom districts being added to Vientiane province and Thathon district being added to Xiengkhuang province. In 2013, Xaisômboun special region was reconstituted. Due to lack of credible source maps and availability of consistent documentation, IPUMS does not spatially harmonize or combine Vientiane, Xienkhuang, and Xaysomboune provinces between 1995 and 2015.

Universe

Availability

• Laos: 1995, 2015