Organisations and individuals can now easily access socio-economic data at provincial and district levels in both English and Vietnamese at the new website www.worldbank.org/mapvietnam, launched by the World Bank recently.

The site aims to provide useful information for policymakers, researchers, journalists and other citizens. However, people are required to cite the source as the World Bank.

In the past, people had to pay fees to get the data.

The maps illustrate Vietnam's diversity, which can be lost in aggregate statistics, according to the World Bank.

Most of the information is based on the 2009 National Population and Housing Census conducted by the General Statistics Office of Vietnam.-VNA