Demographics
As of 2021, the population of Vietnam stands at approximately 97.5 million people.[375] The population had grown significantly from the 1979 census, which showed the total population of reunified Vietnam to be 52.7 million.[376] According to the 2019 census, the country's population was 96,208,984.[2] Based on the 2019 census, 65.6% of the Vietnamese population live in rural areas while only 34.4% live in urban areas. The average growth rate of the urban population has recently increased which is attributed mainly to migration and rapid urbanisation.[2] The dominant Viet or Kinh ethnic group constitute 82,085,826 people or 85.32% of the population.[2] Most of their population is concentrated in the country's alluvial deltas and coastal plains. As a majority ethnic group, the Kinh possess significant political and economic influence over the country.[374] Despite this, Vietnam is also home to various ethnic groups, of which 54 are officially recognised, including the Hmong, Dao, Tà y, Thái and Nùng.[377] Many ethnic minorities such as the Muong, who are closely related to the Kinh, dwell in the highlands which cover two-thirds of Vietnam's territory.[378]
Since the partition of Vietnam, the population of the Central Highlands was almost exclusively Degar (including more than 40 tribal groups); however, the South Vietnamese government at the time enacted a programme of resettling Kinh in indigenous areas.[379][380] The Hoa (ethnic Chinese) and Khmer Krom people are mainly lowlanders.[374][381] Throughout Vietnam's history, many Chinese people, largely from South China, migrated to the country as administrators, merchants and even refugees.[382] Since the reunification in 1976, an increase of communist policies nationwide resulted in the nationalisation and confiscation of property especially from the Hoa in the south and the wealthy in cities. This led many of them to leave Vietnam.[383][384]