Demographics of Vietnam

Ethnic groups

The Vietnamese government recognizes 54 ethnic groups, of which the Viet (Kinh) is the largest; according to official Vietnamese figures (2019 census), which account for 85.3% of the country's population and the non-Viet ethnic groups account for the remaining portion.

The relation between China and Vietnam declined following reunification in 1976, with Vietnam siding with the Soviet Union against China in the Sino-Soviet split. In 1978–79, some 450,000 ethnic Chinese left Vietnam by boat as refugees (some officially encouraged and assisted) or were expelled across the land border with China. The government has performed an about turn and is encouraging overseas Hoa to return and invest, while the ethnic Chinese population has been in decline since the 1970s due to assimilation and lower birth rates.

The central highland peoples, termed Degar or Montagnards (mountain people), comprise two main ethnolinguistic groups – Malayo-Polynesian and Mon–Khmer. About 30 groups of cultures and dialects are spread over the highland territory.

Other minority groups include the Cham – remnants of the Champa kingdom, conquered by the Viet in the 15th century, Hmong, and Thái.

Languages

Vietnamese is the national language. It belongs to the Austroasiatic language family, which also includes languages such as Khmer and Mon. Vietnamese was spoken by 85–90 million people in Vietnam based on the 1999 census. Vietnamese is a tonal, monosyllabic language. Vietnamese was influenced by Chinese, with up to around 50–70% words having Chinese origins. Since the 20th century, the Vietnamese have used a Romanized script introduced by the French, developed by Jesuit missionaries led by Alexandre de Rhodes and later on, refined by Vietnamese scholars to produce what is later known as the Vietnamese alphabet.

Religion

According to the 2019 Census, the religious demographics of Vietnam are as follows:

• 86.32% Vietnamese folk religion or non-religious
• 6.1% Catholicism
• 4.79% Buddhism (mainly Mahayana)
• 1.02% Hoahaoism
• 1% Protestantism
• <1% Caodaism
• 0.77 Others

It is noted here that the data is skewed, as a majority of Vietnamese may declare themselves atheist yet practice forms of traditional folk religion or Mahayana Buddhism.

Estimates for the year 2010 published by the Pew Research Center:

• Vietnamese folk religion, 45.3%
• Unaffiliated, 29.6%
• Buddhism, 16.4%
• Christianity, 8.2%
• Other, 0.5%