Asia > South-Eastern Asia > Vietnam > Vietnam People Profile

Vietnam: Vietnam People Profile

2015/02/20

 vietnam people

 

The total population in Vietnam was last recorded at 90.7 million people in 2014 from 34.7 million in 1960, changing 161 percent during the last 50 years. Population in Vietnam averaged 62.18 Million from 1960 until 2014, reaching an all time high of 90.73 Million in 2014 and a record low of 34.74 Million in 1960. Population in Vietnam is reported by the General Statistics Office of Vietnam.

In comparison, Vietnam has a small surface area, and at 331,210 square kilometres (128,565 square miles), this is only the world’s 65th major in terms of land mass alone.

Those two sets of figures would suggest a densely populated landscape and that is the case to an extent. For each square kilometre of land, there is an average of 280.6 people. That number converts to 723 per square mile and in general, this becomes the 46th most densely populated country on earth.

Vietnam People History

In the absence of any confirmed figures from within the country itself, it is necessary to turn to UN estimates to gauge how the people of Vietnam has been developing over the years.

Back in 1950, the organisation claimed that there were 28,264,000 people living here and just five years later in 1955, those numbers had swelled significantly to 31,329,000.

Further consistent increase followed, even through the long years of the Vietnam War which you may have been forgiven for thinking would have had some form of impact on the people of Vietnam. In fact, increase continued at a similar level throughout the second half of the 1900’s and has continued further to the point where the Vietnam people of 2014 stands at just short of 93 million.
Vietnam Demographics

The CIA World Factbook has as well produced some interesting figures in relation to life expectancy and these stand at relatively healthy levels. The organisation claims that in 2011, those figures stood at 71.33 years in general, which could be divided between males at 68.52 years and females at 74.33 years.

This is arguably one of the majority diverse nations on earth at the same time as it comes to ethnicity splits and in fact, the Vietnamese government recognises no less than 54 ethnic groups within the country. The inventory is therefore far too numerous to replicate in full but the Kinh group are by far the majority numerous and account for over 87% of the in general people of Vietnam.

Vietnam’s future

For a country with such a turbulent completed, Vietnam’s people statistics have been largely unremarkable throughout the country’s history. The next major milestone is 100 million inhabitants and it will be fascinating to see how long it takes for Vietnam to push through this landmark.