VietNamNet Bridge - The average life expectancy of Vietnamese people has increased to 73 from 72.8 of 2010, according to the General Department of the Population and Family Planning.
Vietnam's average life span has increased by 33 years in the last 50 years. It was only 40 in 1960. At the same time, the world average life span has increased only 21 years, from 48 in 1960 to 69 in 2011.

The healthy life span of Vietnamese is only 66, the department announced on December 1. Though it is lower than the average life expectancy, the healthy life span has increased strongly from 2009, when it was only 58.4.

Vietnam’s population growth rate in 2011 was estimated at 1.04 percent, the lowest in the last 5 years, and the average number of children per mother in child-bearing age is 1.9.

Vietnam now ranks 13rd in the world for population.

The population sector will take measures to limit the country’s population to 93 million by 2015, which is less than the previous estimate of 98 million, said director of the General Department of the Population and Family Planning Duong Quoc Trong.

Since 2001,  the World Health Organisation has published statistics called Healthy Life Expectancy. This is defined as the average number of years that a person can expect to live in full health, excluding the years lived in less than full health due to diseases and/or injuries. The Ministry of Health is carrying out a project to calculate the Healthy Life Expectancy and plans to apply it next year.

Le Minh