The Use of Demographic Data in Vietnam

Liem T. Nguyen, Institute of Population, Health and Development
Bach Duong Le, Institute for Social Development Studies, Hanoi

Over the past two decades, various demographic surveys were carried out. General Statistics Office of Vietnam under supports of international organizations has collected several nationally representative data. Other Government and non-Government institutions have also collected various data. While those demographic data provide a good resource for policy making and planning, question of their use remain. This paper aims to gather major demographic data in Vietnam over the last two decades, assess their use, and raise recommendations for more effective use of this valuable resource. The results show that those demographic data were under-used: the number of studies using those data sources is small and a large number of potential topics for analysis were ignored. Low awareness and accessibility to data, limited human capacity to exploit quantitative data, and lack of resources for in-depth analysis contributed to the low use of demographic data and they should be changed.