(TT) - The population of Vietnam has passed the 85 million mark, making it the 13th most populous country in the world and the third in Southeast Asia, according to the results of the 15-day national census conducted in April.The census counted 85.789 million in Vietnam, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung announced in Hanoi on Thursday.
The last census, conducted in April 1999, put Vietnam’s population at 76.3 million.
According to the General Statistics Office, Vietnam’s population has grown by 1.2 percent a year over the last decade, compared to 1.7 percent between 1989 and 1999.
The office said the latest census showed the birth rate had declined considerably over the past decade.
Vietnam introduced a two-child policy in 1993 to slow its rapid population growth. Under the policy, Communist Party members and civil servants who have a third child can be “disciplined.”
This year’s census found Ho Chi Minh City to be Vietnam’s most populous city, with more than 7.1 million people. There are 20 times more people living within the boundaries of HCMC than in the northern province of Bac Kan, the country’s most sparsely populated province.
The census revealed the country has a sex ratio of 98 males for every 100 females, compared to 96.7 to 100 in 1999.
However, with a birth rate of 112 boys for every 100 girls, the imbalance could worsen in future if no preventive measures are applied, the statistics office said.
The census found around 30 percent of Vietnam’s population lives in urban areas, compared to 23.5 percent in 1999.
Deputy Prime Minister Hung said the urban-rural ratio showed Vietnam was still underdeveloped. He said in developed countries, 65 percent of the population lived in urban areas.
Meanwhile, General Population Office Chief Duong Quoc Trong said Vietnam was experiencing a “golden age,” with the number of people of working age increasing.
“It works out that every two employed people have one dependant,” Trong said. “In the past, one employed person usually had to support one dependant, usually a child aged under 15 or a person aged over 60.”
Vietnam defines a person of working age as aged between 18 and 60 for males and 18 to 55 for females.
Although Vietnam has a large and young workforce, it must make the most of the opportunity by boosting vocational training and education to increase the skill level of the labor force, Trong said.
The census revealed the Red River Delta in the north and the Mekong Delta in the south are home to 43 percent of the country’s population. The lush and fertile Red River Delta, just north of Hanoi, and the Mekong Delta, south of HCMC, are known as Vietnam’s “rice bowls” and account for the bulk of the nation’s rice crop.
The nation’s mountainous northern and midland areas and the Central Highlands only comprise of 19 percent of the population.
The census also found Vietnam has 7,200 people aged over 100 years old.
General Statistic Office Deputy Chief Do Thuc said other indexes like housing, employment and labor would be released by the end of this year.
Bruce Campbell, a spokesman for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Hanoi, told Tuoi Tre that it was important to publicize the results of the census and use the data for social and economic purposes.
“Everyone knows that immigrants in big cities are put at many disadvantages, but how vulnerable are they and what are the solutions?”
“They may be make-believe numbers, but all numbers can tell us something,” Campbell said.
He said UNFPA was willing to help Vietnam make the best use of the statistics from the census.
