Situated in the heart of the Southeast Asian Indochinese peninsula, Thailand, formerly known as Siam, is a country consisting of 76 provinces. With a land area of 513,120 km2 (198,120 sq mi) and a population of over 68 million people, it ranks as the world's 50th largest country and the 21st most populous. Bangkok, a special administrative area, is the capital and largest city. Myanmar and Laos border Thailand to the north, Laos and Cambodia to the east, the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia to the south, and the Andaman Sea and southern Myanmar to the west. Its maritime boundaries extend to Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, and Indonesia and India on the Andaman Sea to the southwest. While Thailand is technically a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, a military coup in 2014 established a de facto military dictatorship.
