Pham Vu Hoang, Deputy Director General of the General Department of Population under the Ministry of Health (MOH), said Vietnam's aging population in 2011 with the number of people 65 year-old and more accounting for 7 percent of the total population.

There are 9 million people aged 65 and above and the figure is predicted to increase to 21.7 million by 2050. If counting people aged 60 and above, the figure would be 11.9 million, or 12 percent of the population, and is expected to rise to 25 percent by 2050.

Vietnam is one of the countries with the fastest aging rates in the world, Hoang, adding that the time for Vietnam to shift from an aging population to an older population will be  25 years. This means that Vietnam will officially enter the older population period by 2036, and 20 years later, Vietnam will enter the very old population period, as Japan did some years ago.

According to the General Department of Population, the average life expectancy of Vietnamese is 73.6 years, but Vietnamese women have a longer life expectancy than men (76.1 vs 71.1). In 2019, the gap was 5.3 years (76.3 vs 71).

On average, Vietnamese elderly suffer from 3-4 health problems, mostly non-communicable diseases, such as musculoskeletal disorders, dementia, hearing loss, hypertension or sleep disorders. While the number of elderly increases year after year, healthcare services satisfying the demand for treatment and long-term care remain modest. Vietnam still doesn’t have a hospital specializing in providing long-term care services.

In Hanoi, according to Ho Thi Kim Thanh from the Hanoi Medical University, there are 250,000 people aged 75 and higher who need social support and medical care. It is estimated that Hanoi needs at least 10 hospitals, geriatric wards and medical centers specializing in caring for elderly people.

How do Vietnamese prepare for old age?

Bui Thi Ninh from the Vietnam Confederation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) said most Vietnamese elderly follow the same way of thinking. They spend all the money and time they have on children, funding their studies and hoping that once the children grow up and succeed in their lives, they will have conditions to care for their parents. They don’t think they need to prepare for their old age themselves by arranging stable sources of income.

The income of Vietnamese elderly mostly comes from the support of their children and grandchildren. The reliance increases when they get older, while their income decreases.

Linh Trang