people vs laity

people and laity both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
people	Yes	No	Yes	No
laity	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, laity is a hyponym of people; that is, laity is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than people:

people: the common people generally
laity: in Christianity, members of a religious community that do not have the priestly responsibilities of ordained clergy

Other hyponyms of people include temporalty, audience, followers, following.

people (noun)	laity (noun)
(plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively	in Christianity, members of a religious community that do not have the priestly responsibilities of ordained clergy
the body of citizens of a state or country
members of a family line
the common people generally

people (verb)	laity (verb)
fill with people
furnish with people