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| Việt Nam has a strong population, recorded at nearly 92 million this year. – VNA/VNS Photo |
Viet Nam News
HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam’s population density of 274 persons per square kilometre is 5.2 times higher than the world average , the Ministry of Health’s General Office of Population and Family Planning said yesterday.
As of July 1, there were 91.7 million people in the country, the eighth highest average in Asia and third highest in Southeast Asia, it added.
At a conference to mark World Population Day (July 11), held yesterday in Hà Nội, Đặng Văn Nghị, head of the general office, said the quality of the population increased remarkably when the infant mortality rate for children aged under five and the fatality rate for mothers reduced, while the average life expectancy rate started to rise.
In the first six months of this year, the population and family planning office faced a few challenges. The budget for their programmes was estimated at VNĐ590 billion (US$26.4 million), much lower than the general office’s proposal of VNĐ1 trillion ($44.4 billion).
As a result, the national birth rate has increased by 9.9 per cent compared to the same period last year. The rate of using contraception is only 75 per cent compared to the same period last year.
The high density of the population has also put pressure on many other issues, especially the availability of jobs, the average income and social welfare programmes.
In particular, the sex ratio at birth in the country is imbalanced, with 112.8 males for every 100 females.
Foetal sex selection was blamed for the gender imbalance, he said.
Nghị said in the last six months of this year, the general office would focus more on population and family planning programmes. — VNS
