Vietnam's Population Still on the Rise in Next 20 Years: UNFPA
Vietnam’s population is expected to grow within 20 upcoming years due to the decrease in mortality and increase in life expectancy, said Bruce Campbell, chief representative of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in Vietnam.
The UN official made the statement at a ceremony to announce the publication of Vietnam 2008 Population Booklet May 27.
The book includes survey results on population development and family planning undertaken by the General Statistics Office.
Although the country’s total fertility rate (TFR) has fallen below the replacement level and reached 2.08 children per woman, there are some sub-national variations with an average of 1.84 children per woman in urban areas and 2.22 in rural areas.
Vietnamese women tend to give birth at older age. Fertility is now mostly concentrated in the age range of 25-34 for urban and 20-29 for rural women, the surveys found.
The booklet also shows that the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) has declined from 16 infant deaths in 2007 to 15 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2008.
“Low Mortality Rates in the past years confirm Vietnam’s progress toward the Millennium Development Goals and positive achievements in overall development as well as improvements in the national health care system”, says the booklet. (Labor, CPV)
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