| Thailand has a population of about 60 million | | | | money from their farms and end up coming to |
| people of which about three fourths are ethnic | | | | Bangkok in search of a livelihood. According to a |
| Thais. There are many minorities living in Thailand | | | | recent survey, the urban population comprises of |
| and amongst them a percentage comprises of | | | | 37 percentage of the entire population of the |
| Chinese while the remaining are Vietnamese, | | | | country. |
| Cambodian, Malays and hill tribes. In the early 19th | | | | The government of Thailand is said to be |
| and 20th century, Chinese immigrants came and | | | | successful in many aspects. The family planning is |
| settled down in Thailand. They married Thai | | | | one of the most successful programs undertaken |
| women and changed their names from Chinese | | | | by the government of Thailand. It reduced |
| names to Thai ones. Most of them adopted | | | | percentage of birth rate from 3.1 percent to less |
| Buddhism as their religion and learned to speak, | | | | than 1 percent. It is also successful in reducing the |
| read and write Thai. It was said that the Chinese | | | | percentage of HIV patients. According to a recent |
| immigrants were good at money making and | | | | census, there are approximately 60000 Thais |
| they ended up becoming the best businessmen in | | | | affected with HIV / AIDS. A few years ago, it |
| Thailand. | | | | was estimated that by the end of 2006, thirty to |
| Most people in Thailand are concentrated in rural | | | | fifty thousand Thais would die from HIV. In order |
| areas and make money with farming and | | | | to prevent this, the Thai government had |
| agriculture. However, industrialization is changing | | | | undertaken annual public education campaigns and |
| this trend and slowly people are migrating from | | | | this has been successful to a certain extent by |
| villages to the capital city of Bangkok. The other | | | | improving awareness and educating people on |
| reason being that due to bad farming practices, | | | | how to protect themselves from HIV. |
| many villagers and farmers are not able to make | | | | |