Vietnam's Population is 76.3 Million

VNA Ha Noi, July 23 -- Vietnam's population at 00.00 hr, April 1, 1999, was 76.3 million, announced the General Statistics Office (GSO) at a news briefing on the initial results of the National Population and Housing Census in Ha Noi today, July 23.

Males were 49.2 percent, and females, 50.8 percent, said GSO Director Le Van Toan, who is also deputy head of the National Committee for the Population and Housing Census. He added that the urban population was 23.5 percent, and the rural population, 76.5 percent.

During the past ten years, Vietnam's population increased 1.7 percent annually as against 2.1 percent in the previous decade (Oct. 1979 to Apr. 1989). The figures show that the country's population policy and family-planning programme have been a success.

The census also shows that Vietnam has 3,695 people 100 years old or more, including 855 males and 2,840 females. Seventeen of them are more than 120 years old. Most of them are ethnic minority people living in rural and mountainous areas.