POPULATION OF 2015
As of 1 January 2016, the population of Vietnam was estimated to be 93 976 347 people. This is an increase of 1.12 % (1 040 877 people) compared to population of 92 935 470 the year before. In 2015 the natural increase was positive, as the number of births exceeded the number of deaths by 1 081 769. Due to external migration, the population declined by 40 892. The sex ratio of the total population was 0.978 (978 males per 1 000 females) which is lower than global sex ratio. The global sex ratio in the world was approximately 1 016 males to 1 000 females as of 2015. See also map of the world by sex ratio of total population.
ETHNIC GROUPS
The Vietnamese government recognizes 54 ethnic groups, of which the Viet (Kinh) is the largest; according to official Vietnamese figures (1999 census), ethnic Vietnamese account for 86% of the nation’s population. The ethnic Vietnamese inhabit a little less than half of Vietnam, while the ethnic minorities inhabit the majority of Vietnam’s land (albeit the least fertile parts of the country).
The Khmer Krom are found in the delta of the Mekong River, in the south of Vietnam, where they form in many areas the majority of the rural population. They live in an area which was previously part of Cambodia and which Vietnam conquered in the 17th and 18th centuries. Official Vietnamese figures put the Khmer Krom at 1 million people. Vietnam’s approximately 1 million ethnic Chinese, constitute one of Vietnam’s largest minority groups. Long important in the Vietnamese economy, Vietnamese of Chinese ancestry have been active in rice trading, milling, real estate, and banking in the south and shopkeeping, stevedoring, and mining in the north. Restrictions on economic activity following reunification in 1975 and the subsequent but unrelated general deterioration in Vietnamese-Chinese relations sent chills through the Chinese-Vietnamese community.
The central highland peoples commonly termed Degar or Montagnards (mountain people) comprise two main ethnolinguistic groups–Malayo-Polynesian and Mon–Khmer. About 30 groups of various cultures and dialects are spread over the highland territory.
Other minority groups include the Cham—remnants of the once-mighty Champa Kingdom, conquered by the Vietnamese in the 15th century, Hmong, and Tai (“Thái”).