Results of 2019 census on ethnic minority groups announced

Hanoi (VNA) – Up to 98.6 percent of mountainous and ethnic minority-inhabited communes accessed electricity in 2019, according to outcomes of a census released in Hanoi on July 3.

The census on the socio-economic situation of Vietnam’s 53 ethnic minority groups was carried out in 5,468 mountainous and ethnic minority-inhabited communes nationwide in October 2019, by the General Statistics Office (GSO) and the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs.

It found that 99.5 percent of the communes have medical facilities, and most of roads linking the communes and district centres, and between villages have been concretised.

The rate of out-of-school children reduced from 26.4 percent in 2009 to 15.5 percent last year. Meanwhile, the rate of ethnic minority people aged 15 and over who know how to read and write was 80.9 percent, up 1.7 percentage points as compared with 2015.

As of April 1, 2019, there were 3.7 million ethnic minority households, making up 13.7 percent of the national number, with most of them in rural areas.

The rate of poor and near-poor households has remained high in these localities, at 35.5 percent, 3.5 times higher than the national average, according to the census which is conducted every five years.  

Do Van Chien, Minister-Chairman of the Committee, said the census results will serve as a legal foundation to assess the implementation of policies on ethnic affairs in 2015-2020, and the socio-economic development strategy in 2011-2020, and build a socio-economic development strategy by 2030./.