The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) pledges to continue helping Vietnam carry out projects to improve the population’s quality of life and to meet the nation’s socio-economic growth targets. Assistant to the UNFPA Chief Representative Tran Thi Van stated the organization’s support at the December 31 ceremony in Hanoi where the General Office of Statistics (GOS) announced the conclusion from the results of the 2009 General Housing and Population census. The announcement stated that Vietnam is in the “golden population structure” period, where the birth rate remains below the replacement level, and that the working-age population doubles the number of dependants. GOS Head Nguyen Duc Hoa said that a strong emphasis will be placed on implementing human resource training programs with focus on improving workers’ skills and job generation measures are synchronous measures to take advantages of the golden opportunity to develop the country. The 2009 General Housing and Population census found the total population was 85,789,573 as counted at 0.00 hours on April 1, 2009, a rise of 9.47 million from 1999. This population figure reflects a population growth rate of 1.2% a year in the 1999-2009, representing a 0.5% decrease from the figure recorded a decade ago and the lowest rate within 50 years. The rate of under-15 people dropped over the past decade, the “aging index” of the country’s population increased from 24.5% in 1999 to 35.4% in 2009, higher than the average rate of 30% of the Southeast Asian region.
