The Population and Housing Census (PHC) 2019 began 1 April 2019 under the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 772/QĐ-TTg dated 26 June 2018. This was the fifth PHC in Viet Nam since the country’s reunification in 1975. PHC 2019 collected basic data on population and housing across the country to provide information for formulating socioeconomic policies and to monitor commitments by the Government of Viet Nam to implement the Sustainable Development Goals.
Following the key findings from PHC 2019 announced by the General Statistics Office of Viet Nam (GSO) on 19 December 2019, a number of important topics such as unbalanced sex ratio at birth, total fertility, migration and urbanization, and population ageing have been further explored and discussed in order to provide evidence and recommendations to inform policies that respond to significant demographic and social changes towards sustainable development.
This monograph, “Population ageing and older persons in Viet Nam”, was developed using data from PHCs in 2009 and 2019 and other relevant sources. It builds on in-depth analyses from previous reports on population ageing in Viet Nam. The analysis finds that population ageing has evolved swiftly in Viet Nam, which in turn requires adaptive policies and programmes. The analysis also identifies different characteristics of groups in old age, and provides a number of policy recommendations to help the country meet the individual needs of older persons in order to take care of them as well as promote their role as a resource for economic growth and development in Viet Nam.
This monograph was compiled with the technical assistance of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). We would like to thank Associate Professor Giang Thanh Long (National Economics University) for analysing data and writing this monograph. We are also thankful to experts and staff of the United Nations Population Fund country office in Viet Nam (UNFPA Viet Nam), UNFPA Asia-Pacific Regional Office for providing support and insightful comments towards the completion of this report.
The focus of this monograph, population ageing in Viet Nam, is a topic of interest to policymakers, researchers and society as a whole. Comments and suggestions to improve the quality of future publications by UNFPA and GSO are appreciated by the authors.
GENERAL STATISTICS OFFICE