Ethnics make up 14.6 pct of Vietnam's population: survey

Some 53 ethnic minority groups in Vietnam had a total population of 13.39 million people, accounting for 14.6 percent of the country's population, said a survey by the General Statistics Office (GSO) on Friday.

In Vietnam, there are 54 ethnic groups, with Viet (Kinh) people being the majority.

Results of the 2015 socio-economic survey of the 53 minorities in Vietnam showed that there were more than 3 million ethnic minority households nationwide, a 2.2 percent annual rise between 2009 and 2015.

Up to 89.6 percent of ethnics reside in rural areas, while 66.1 percent of the Vietnamese population lives in those areas.

There were more men than women among ethnics (50.3 percent and 49.7 percent), contrary to overall figures in Vietnam (men with 49.3 percent, women with 50.7 percent), said the survey.

Life expectancy for ethnic minorities averages 69.9 years with men living for 67.1 years and women for 72.9 years on average.

The survey showed that almost 21 percent of ethnic people by the age of 15 were unable to read, write or understand a simple sentence in Vietnamese.

About 23.1 percent of the ethnic minority families were poor in 2015, some 3.3 times higher than the general poverty rate of 7 percent.

Meanwhile, as many as 81.9 percent of working ethnics (aged at least 15) worked in agro-forestry-fishery activities.

The monthly per capita income of ethnics was 1.16 million Vietnamese dong (52 U.S. dollars), much lower than the national average of 2.8 million Vietnamese dong (125.6 U.S. dollars).

The data will be used to establish a database on the ethnic minorities in Vietnam to help socio-economic development policy making for ethnic-inhabited areas, said head of the GSO Nguyen Bich Lam. Endit