The average life expectancy of Vietnamese people has climbed to 73 this year from 72.8 years last year, but their healthy life span is just 66, said the General Department of the Population and Family Planning.
The department announced the figures at a press meeting yesterday as part of its activities to mark the Traditional Day of the Population Sector (December 26).
Although it is much lower than the average life expectancy, Vietnamese people’s healthy life span has increased sharply from 2009, when it was just 58.4, deputy head of the department Tran Van Chien said, citing a WHO report.
Since 2001, WHO has published statistics called Healthy Life Expectancy (HALE). This is defined as the average number of years that a person can expect to live in "full health", excluding the years lived in less than full health due to diseases and/or injuries.
HALE is a complex index as it is based on many criteria, such as the average number of days-off in a year, the average number of years at school, the average life expectancy, and healthcare conditions, Chien said.
The Ministry of Health is carrying out a project to calculate HALE and plans to apply it next year, he said.
He also said Vietnam’s population growth rate this year was estimated to be 1.04%, the lowest in the last 5 years, and the average number of children per mother in child-bearing age is 1.9.
The population sector will take measures to limit the country’s population to 93 million by 2015, which is less than the previous estimate of 98 million, Chien said.
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