POPULATION GROWTH IN VIETNAM AND IN HO CHI MINH CITY
IN PARTICUL.R
Vietnam is among the developing nations with a high popula- tion growth rate more than 2% yearly. Each year, in Vietnam, 1.7 million babies are born. While the population numbered only 23
illion in 1945, is figure hed incrc-sed to 53 million by 1980
58 million by 1985. Thus within 40 years, it had times.
3.5
increased
the
The proportion of people under 15 years of nge is highest in the world: nearly 50%, twice as many as in developed countries.
from
Since 1963 in the Forth; nã 1976 in the South, the Viet- namese Government has launched a vigorous campaign for planning. This has brought down the population growth rate
family 3.2% in 1976 to 2.2% by 1984. In 1985, this rate was 1.7% and below in such provinces and cities Hai Phong (1.6%), Ha Bac (1.7%)
down to
s
Thri Binh (1.55%), In the whole country, 3 million
women are wearing intra-uterine devices.
Ho Chi Minh City is the most populous urban centre in the country, with a population of four million. Each year, 75,000- 85,000 babies are born, 35 of them to families with already two children or more. Over the past ten years, the city has been
pace-setter in the family planning movement in the South.
+ Over the past ten years, New Economic Zones in Lam Dong province (Central Highlands) settled by people from Hanoi have put nearly 4,400 hectares under food and industrial crops. In 1985, they made the first food deliveries to the State (252 tommes of food grain) while covering 75% of their own food requirements. In the field of education, 171 classrooms have been built for nearly 5,000 general-education students,