2019 Population and Housing Census’ data important for all sectors’ planning: Deputy PM

Data collected from the 2019 Vietnam Population and Housing Census is vital for all sectors and localities to survey and map out development plans, thereby serving national sustainable development towards leaving absolutely no one behind.

Deputy PM Vuong Dinh Hue speaks at the Conference on Dissemination of the Official Results and Closing of the 2019 Vietnam Population and Housing Census, held in Hanoi on December 19, 2019. (Photo: NDO/Trung Hung)
Deputy PM Vuong Dinh Hue speaks at the Conference on Dissemination of the Official Results and Closing of the 2019 Vietnam Population and Housing Census, held in Hanoi on December 19, 2019. (Photo: NDO/Trung Hung)

The statement was made by Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue during a conference held in Hanoi on December 19 to officially disseminate the official results of the census.

Conducted by the General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO) with technical support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) at 0:00 a.m. on April 1 this year, it was the fifth Population and Housing Census in Vietnam since the country's reunification in 1975. The 2019 Population and Housing Census collected basic information on population and housing throughout the territory of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to inform the country’s socio-economic development policies and monitor progress on the Sustainable Development Goals committed to by the Government of Vietnam.

Speaking at the official dissemination conference, Deputy PM Hue, who is also Chairman of the Central Steering Committee for the 2019 Population and Housing Census, said that the results of the census fully reflected the population, demographics and quality of population and housing and living conditions of the Vietnamese people, while showing both the effectiveness and inadequacies of the policy implementation on population and development in the country on different sectors and groups.

Minister of Planning and Investment, Nguyen Chi Dung, informed that data collected from the census is reliable, significant and useful evidence to further support the national socio-economic development policies, providing additional information on population, demographics and quality of population and living conditions of the people in a more complete and detailed manner.

Some key indicators from the 2019 Census results. (Video: GSO/UNFPA)

Data from the 2019 Population and Housing Census shows a full picture of many social issues in Vietnam, indicating that they have overall improved over the past 10 years. However, there is still some lagging in some areas, disadvantaged population groups as well as in different regions, Minister Dung said, adding that these policy gaps need to be further improved in the coming time.

Announcing the key indicators from the census results, GSO Director General Nguyen Bich Lam said that the 2019 Population and Housing Census is the first census to apply IT in all stages, helping improve the quality of data, shorten the time to publish the results of the census and save hundreds of billions of VND for the State budget.

Statistics from the census showed that Vietnam is the 3rd most populous country in Southeast Asia (after Indonesia and the Philippines) and the 15th in the world, with over 96.2 million as of April 1, 2019. Over the last 10 years, the size of Vietnam's population increased by 10.4 million. The average annual population growth rate in the 2009-2019 period is at 1.14% a year, a slight decrease compared to the 1999-2009 period (1.18% per year).

Vietnam’s fertility rate has been steadily and slightly under the replacement level at 2.09 children per woman at present. The Census results also show progress in maternal and child care services, with the proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel is 95.4%. The maternal mortality ratio in 2019 is 46 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births, which is a decrease by one-third, compared to 2009 (69 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births), indicating that Vietnam will achieve its goal of reducing maternal mortality earlier than the plan stated in the National Action Plan for Agenda 2030.

The rise of life expectancy at birth from 75.6 to 76.3 for female and from 70.2 to 71 for male during the last 10 years has demonstrated the tremendous achievements of health and social development programmes. The country is still in a period of demographic transition, providing a “demographic window of opportunity” when the number of working-age population doubles the number of those of dependent ages.

Household accommodation and living conditions also significantly improved. Nearly all (99.4%) households used national grid electricity for lighting, a 3.3 percentage point increase compared to 2009. The percentage of households using hygienic water sources was 97.4%, and 52.2% households used tap water. The rate of hygienic water use was 99.6% of households in urban areas and 96.3% of households in rural areas.

An overview of the Conference on Dissemination of the Official Results and Closing of the 2019 Vietnam Population and Housing Census, held in Hanoi on December 19, 2019. (Photo: NDO/Trung Hung)

Concluding the event, Deputy PM Hue said that the 2019 Population and Housing Census was completed but the final goal has not yet, urging for the effective access and use of the census data to server the evidence-based socio-economic development policymaking to ensure the country's sustainable development towards leaving no one behind.

The government senior official, who is also a Politburo member, requested the GSO to exploit the Population and Housing Census data to compile in-depth thematic reports on such areas as population, migration, urbanisation, employment and education and training, thus taking advantage of the "golden population structure" period to help Vietnam avoid the middle income trap.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment was assigned to assume the prime responsibility for synthesising data of the census to prepare documents for the upcoming 13th Party National Congress to serve the evaluation and development of annual, five-year and 10-year socio-economic development plans.

Praising the high values of the census data, Naomi Kitahara, UNFPA Representative in Vietnam, said that the census also helps the international community understand more about Vietnam’s progress and areas needed for international support, including the realisation of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development. Within the current framework of UNFPA Country Programme for the 2017-2021 period, UNFPA commits to supporting the GSO in not only carrying out the Census successfully, but also in producing and disseminating census results, as well as in ensuring good use of quality census data for the country’s policy and decision-making to make a difference for the improvement of the lives of all the people, the UN official addressed.

A photo voice exhibition titled “Stories behind the data” also launched on the side-lines of the census official result dissemination. (Photo: NDO/Trung Hung)

On the occasion, a photo voice exhibition titled "Stories behind the data" was also launched in connection with the 2019 census result dissemination, featuring photos and stories collected from nine cities and provinces across the nation to further enhance the understanding of key issues behind the census data.

The 2019 Population and Housing Census collected basic information on the demographics of over 96.2 million people who were primary residents of nearly 26.9 million households in Vietnam at 0:00 a.m. on April 1, 2019. To supplement information gathered on fertility, mortality, migration and data on labour and employment and household living conditions was collected from the sample survey of 9% of households nationwide (approximately 8.2 million persons living in more than 2.3 million households). The census utilised information technology in all aspects to improve information quality, increase the transparency of the statistical analysis process, shorten the time required for data processing and reduce costs.