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Vietnam SOCIETY
Population: 64,411,668 (1989 census); 2.1 percent
average annual population growth rate. Nineteen percent urban; 81
percent rural. Population centers Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City
(formerly Saigon).
Languages: Vietnamese official language; also French,
various Chinese dialects, tribal languages, and English.
Ethnic Groups: Vietnamese account for 87.5 percent of
population (1979 figures). Fifty-three minorities account for
remainder, including Hoa (Chinese, comprising approximately 1.8
percent), Tay, Thai, Khmer, Muong, Nung, Hmong, and numerous
mountain tribes.
Religion: Mahayana Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism, Cao
Dai, Hoa Hao, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Hinduism,
and animism.
Education and Literacy: Nine years of primary and
junior high school, three years of secondary school. First nine
years compulsory. Manual labor comprises 15 percent of primary
curriculum and 17 percent of secondary. Ninety-three colleges and
universities, with close to 130,000 students enrolled, able to
admit only 10 percent of applicants. Education emphasizes
training of skilled workers, technicians, and managers. Students
nevertheless tend to avoid vocational schools and specialized
middle schools because they are believed to preclude entry to
high-status occupations. Literacy 78 percent (for all age
groups).
Health: Total of approximately 11,000 hospitals,
medical aid stations, public health stations, and village
maternity clinics, staffed by 240,000 medical personnel.
Approximately 1 physician per 1,000 persons. Life expectancy
sixty-three years. Malaria, tuberculosis, and other communicable
diseases prevalent. Government undertaken a campaign to improve
cleanliness by launching "Three Cleans Movement" (clean food,
water, and living conditions) and "Three Exterminations Movement"
(exterminate flies, mosquitos, and rats).
Data as of December 1987
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