FinObservatory

Financial inclusion / LAO

Laos

Laos appears in 4 of the 5 Global Findex rounds in this file (2011, 2017, 2021, 2024). It has no account reading in 2014, so those columns are empty below rather than interpolated.

37.7%
Account, 2024
26.8%
Account, 2011
+10.9 pts
Change, 2011 to 2024
-11.9 pts
Gender gap, 2024
129 of 140
Rank in the 2024 round

Account ownership by group

Share of adults aged 15 and over with an account at a bank or with a mobile money provider. Each line is a separate survey estimate on a subsample, not a decomposition of the total.

% of adults age 15+102030405020112014201720212024All adults, 2011: 26.8All adults, 2017: 29.1All adults, 2021: 37.3All adults, 2024: 37.7All adults 37.7Women, 2011: 26.2Women, 2017: 31.9Women, 2021: 37.9Women, 2024: 43.6Women 43.6Men, 2011: 27.4Men, 2017: 26.1Men, 2021: 36.8Men, 2024: 31.7Men 31.7Poorest 40%, 2011: 20.7Poorest 40%, 2017: 17.4Poorest 40%, 2021: 22.8Poorest 40%, 2024: 18.3Poorest 40% 18.3

Source: World Bank Global Findex Database 2025 (CC BY-4.0) Indicators account.t.d, account.t.d.1, account.t.d.2, account.t.d.7. Methodology

Account ownership20112014201720212024
Women26.2%-31.9%37.9%43.6%
Men27.4%-26.1%36.8%31.7%
Poorest 40%20.7%-17.4%22.8%18.3%
Richest 60%30.8%-36.8%47.0%50.6%
Age 15-2423.0%-24.0%26.4%30.2%
Age 25+28.5%-31.7%41.9%40.7%
Primary education or less22.0%-22.1%28.7%27.3%
Secondary education or more34.7%-41.9%57.9%62.2%
Rural----36.4%
Urban----64.0%

Source: World Bank Global Findex Database 2025 (CC BY-4.0) A dash means the cut is not reported for Laos in that round. The rural and urban cuts exist in one round only. Methodology

The gaps

Gender gap is the men’s account rate minus the women’s; income gap is the richest 60% minus the poorest 40%. Both are differences between two survey estimates and the file publishes no standard error for either, so a gap of a few points is not distinguishable from zero.

Percentage points-200.0204020112014201720212024Gender gap, 2011: 1.3Gender gap, 2017: -5.8Gender gap, 2021: -1.1Gender gap, 2024: -11.9Gender gap -11.9Income gap, 2011: 10.2Income gap, 2017: 19.4Income gap, 2021: 24.2Income gap, 2024: 32.3Income gap 32.3

Source: World Bank Global Findex Database 2025 (CC BY-4.0) account.t.d.2 minus account.t.d.1; account.t.d.8 minus account.t.d.7. Methodology

Payments, saving and borrowing

The digital-payment, saved and borrowed indicators are not collected in every round or for every economy: in the 2024 round they are reported for a subset of the economies that report account ownership.

Share of adults age 15+20112014201720212024
Made or received a digital payment--13.3%21.2%26.5%
Mobile money account---5.5%11.8%
Saved at a bank or using mobile money19.4%-18.0%17.2%16.0%
Borrowed from a bank or using mobile money--8.6%9.2%6.9%

Source: World Bank Global Findex Database 2025 (CC BY-4.0) Indicators g20.any, mobileaccount.t.d, fin17a.17a1.d, fin22a.22a1.22g.d. A dash means no reading for Laos in that round. Methodology

Physical access points

From the IMF Financial Access Survey by way of the GFDD, which stops in 2021. Each figure is Laos’s latest reported year, which is shown beside it and is not necessarily the same year as another economy’s. These are the published values, reproduced without adjustment; for at least one economy the published branch and ATM counts are not physically possible, which the methodology page documents.

3.2
Bank branches per 100,000 adults (2020)
27.4
ATMs per 100,000 adults (2020)

Source: World Bank Global Financial Development Database | IMF Financial Access Survey GFDD.AI.02 and GFDD.AI.25, latest reported year for this economy. Methodology