The current population as of April 2019 is 97,200,930 and the median age is 30.9 years old. These numbers are expected to grow to 106,283,600 by 2030 (median age: 36.9) and 114,629,852 by 2050 (median age: 42).

As the rise in median age indicates, Vietnam will need to plan for an ageing population in the future. Indeed, the youth community (ages 0-14) was almost 40% of the total population back in 1989, but it has been declining ever since then and as of 2018, sits at a mere 23% of the population. This age group will drop to 19,148,700 by 2025 but is projected to rebound to nearly 22 million by 2030.

As of 2016, the 15-24 year old population group made up approximately 17% of the total population. Meanwhile, as of October 2017, about 55% of the population was below the age of 34.

The Trends and Challenges section of our report goes into further details regarding the hurdles Vietnam will face due to an ageing society in the future.

Urbanisation trends – Fast facts

• 35.8 % of the population lives in cities (34.86 million people in 2019).
• Urbanisation is growing at an annual rate of 2.59% in Vietnam, as of 2017.

The country is divided administratively into more than 64 provinces (tinh), of which Hanoi, Haiphong, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City, and Can Tho are municipalities (thanh pho).

These are further subdivided into several dozen urban districts (quan) and hundreds of rural districts (huyen).

Hanoi

• The capital and cultural hub of the North
• Also served as the capital of French Indochina from 1902 until 1954, and has retained the architecture of that era
• Nearby port of Haiphong was developed by the French in the late 19th century as a trade and banking centre

Hue

• Home to many World Heritage sites and rich in history
• A political and religious centre in the early 19th century

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

• The largest city with 13 million people
• The adjoining city of Cholon has long been a major centre for ethnic Chinese

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

• ASEAN is a group of ten countries: Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
• More than 650 million people live in these nations.

ASEAN Qualifications Reference Framework (AQRF)

• A common reference framework that enables comparisons of education qualifications across participating ASEAN Member States (AMS).

ASEAN Credit Transfer System (ACTS)

• Designed to create common mechanisms to facilitate the recognition of qualifications and increase student and academic mobility in the ASEAN region.

Asian International Mobility for Students (AIMS) programme

• Vietnam joined the AIMS programme in 2012.
• AIMS links the government ministries of 6 participating ASEAN members – Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Brunei, and Philippines – along with South Korea and Japan.
• The programme extends to 68 universities in those countries and encompasses 10 fields of study.

Support to Higher Education in the ASEAN Region (SHARE)

• Its objective is to strengthen regional cooperation as well as enhance the quality, competitiveness and internationalisation of ASEAN higher education institutions and students.
• SHARE is a project funded by an EU grant which began as a four-year initiative (2015-2019) and has been extended until 2021.
• SHARE is providing more than 500 scholarships for ASEAN university students to put the improved systems to the test, mainly by supporting student exchange and credit recognition within the ASEAN region. Each student will receive a fully funded scholarship to study abroad in another ASEAN country for one semester.