Vietnam Population

According to the State of World Population Report 2010, Vietnam's population is about 89 million people, ranks 14th in the list of the most populous nations in the world.In the near future, Vietnam's General Office for Population and Family Planning sets the goal of improving population quality.

As the outcome of 2009 Population Census, in average, Vietnam’s population is added approximately 1 million people each year. Population growth rate ranges from 1.1% to 1.5% and is tending to decrease. The natural sex ratio at birth in Vietnam is quite high, estimated to be 111 boys to 100 girls. Particularly, Vietnam’s population is in the period of golden population structure. By 1^st April 2009, there are about 43.8 million people in working age (in the age from 15 to 64 years old), accounted for 51.1% of the whole country’s population. This is also a golden chance of Vietnam that provides a huge number of young labors and really makes sense in the period of 2010-2020, which is crucial period of national economic development. Of course, on the other hand, this fact also causes many problems of unemployment, housing and environmental pollution.

However, Vietnam’s population is shifting to aging population: death ratio is gradually decreasing and the average life expectancy is increasing (reached 75.2 years in 2011, according to the statistic of UNDP). Scientists of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) recommended that Vietnam is witnessing an alarming rate of aging population with high rate of population above the age of 65. Along with the increase in average life expectancy, living standard in Vietnam also has significant improvements. The adult literacy rate of both sexes is 92.8% of population at the age of 15 and above. Vietnam’s human Development Index (HDI) is continuously increased and reached 0.593 point in 2011, ranks 128^th out of 187 countries in the world.

Population density of Vietnam is high and uneven between regions all over the country. Specifically, the average population density of Vietnam is 260 people per square kilometers (double that of China and six times of the world’s one), ranks 5^th position in the world. Vietnamese are living mainly in Red River Delta, Northern Central and Coastal Central, and Mekong River Delta in the South. These regions are also the locations of big cities in Vietnam. The region which has lowest population density is Tay Nguyen (93 people per square kilometers). Speed of urbanization in Vietnam is very fast with 29.6% of population is living in the cities and that figure has continued to grow. Population in the cities is accounted for 30% of national population and rising by 3.4% each year.

In the near future, Vietnam’s General Office for Population and Family Planning sets the goal of improving population quality. The first is actively remaining low fertility, stabilizing a reasonable population structure and controlling the rapid growth of sex ratio at birth. Moreover, health-care and medical services must be improved. Besides, training and physical education also need to be enhanced to meet the demand of high-quality labor forces for developing the country.

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