Vietnam is to face challenges from the population ageing starting in 2010 as 9.9 percent of the country’s population was over 60 in 2008 and the rate has continued to increase.

The information was given out at a seminar on population ageing held by the Health Ministry’s Population and Family Planning General Department in Hanoi on Oct. 1.

According to Health Deputy Minister Nguyen Ba Thuy, 73 percent of old people are living in rural areas and 21 percent of them are under the poverty line. Also, the health care services for the elderly are still insufficient in quality and quantity.

According to Dr. Do Thi Khanh Hy, Deputy Director of the National Geriatrics Institute, the elderly are mainly concentrated in three populous regions - the Red River delta, the Mekong delta and the northern central region.

The number of senior citizens in rural areas is 3.5 times higher than that in urban areas. Older women outnumber older men by a ration of 143 to 100 and some 80 percent of old people living alone are women.

A survey in 2008 revealed that Vietnam then had about 8.5 million old people and according to the United Nations’ estimate, the country will have as many as 29.77 million old people by 2050.

At present, Vietnam has some 7,200 people over 100 years old - double the figure for 1999.

Participants at the seminar urged relevant agencies to develop social services for the elderly and called for an early promulgation of a law on the elderly.

A bill on the elderly is scheduled to be submitted to the National Assembly’s sixth session, to be convened in October, for approval./.