Vietnam’s population continues to age

The 2024 mid-term population and housing census announced by the General Statistics Office on January 6 showed that Vietnam’s population continues to age. Specifically, the number of elderly people aged 60 and over is 1.25 times higher than in 2019 and increased by 4.7 million people (1.5 times) compared to 2014. It is forecast that by 2030, the number of people from People aged 60 and over increase by nearly 4 million people compared to 2024.

The aging index is the ratio of the population aged 60 and over to the population under 15 years old, calculated as a percentage. In Vietnam, the aging index has tended to increase rapidly in the past 10 years, with a tendency to continue to increase in the following years.

The Mekong Delta and the Red River Delta are the two regions with the highest aging indexes in the country (76.8% and 70.6%, respectively). The Central Highlands is the place with the lowest aging index compared to the remaining regions (37.0%).

The population pyramid is divided into two parts by the height line from the bottom of the pyramid to the top of the pyramid, where the right side represents the female population and the left side represents the male population. The bottom of the pyramid (two bars for age groups 0-4 and 5-9) shows a shortening of the year 2024 compared to 2019, indicating a decrease in fertility after 5 years. Meanwhile, the age group at the top of the pyramid (over 80) continues to expand.

Mr. Mai Xuan Phuong, former Deputy Director of Communications – Education (Department of Population) acknowledged that population aging is becoming one of the topics of concern not only in Vietnam but around the world. Along with the period of golden population structure, the phenomenon of population aging in our country is happening rapidly and is posing challenges. Fertility rates have continued to decline continuously over the past 5 years, creating a challenge to maintain replacement fertility levels to ensure future labor resources. In addition, rapid population aging requires transforming social insurance policies and developing a health care system suitable for an aging population.

“In the future, a child will have to take care of 6 elderly people,” Mr. Phuong said, adding that as an only child, the child is currently surrounded by his parents and 4 grandparents, but when he becomes an adult, he must take care of them at the same time. 6 elderly people because they have no siblings to support them. This is one of many burdens that the child must face in the future.

And Mr. Le Thanh Dung, Director of the Population Department (Ministry of Health) assessed population aging as one of the challenges of population work, affecting economic growth, social security, labor, infrastructure design, especially in the healthcare sector. Population aging also reduces the structure of the working-age population, the occupational structure will change, and the economic burden for young workers will also be higher…

The average life expectancy of Vietnamese people is high but their health is weak, with an average of 14 years of living with illness. Elderly people often suffer from many non-communicable diseases that require lifelong treatment such as blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and dementia. Health care costs for this group of people are also increasing, putting financial pressure on the health insurance system and state budget.

To cope with population aging, the health sector is making efforts to solve the situation of low fertility, strengthen and improve the system of providing primary health care and medical examination and treatment services for the elderly. In addition, it is necessary to promote the development of social insurance for workers, especially voluntary social insurance. This is one of the measures to “take care of old age from a young age”.