The survey indicated that Vietnamese men’s average height was 168.1 cm, up 3.7 cm against 2010. Meanwhile, the figure was 156.2 cm for women, up 2.6 cm against 2010.
The Vietnamese women's average height was 156.2 cm in 2020, up 2.6 cm against 2010.
The height growth rate of Vietnamese people in the 1990-20 period is equal to Japan’s golden period in height growth in the 1955-1995 phase, said Professor Le Danh Tuyen, head of National Institute of Nutrition.
Tuyen added that the achievement is attributed to improved nutritional care for children in the first 1,000 days of life, the period between conception and a child’s 2nd birthday.
Thanks to this, the rate of stunted children under five years old in Vietnam reached 19.6% in 2020 against 59% in 1985.
In 2020, Vietnamese’s average life expectancy was 73.7 years old, up 0.1 against the previous year, ranking 56th worldwide and the second in Southeast Asia, just behind Singapore.
The country’s birth rate last year was 2.12 children per woman.
In 2018, the Vietnamese government approved the Vietnam Health Programme. Under this, Vietnam aimed to raise the average height of 18-year-old men and women to 167cm and 156cm respectively by 2025. The figures of 168.5m and 157.5cm for men and women respectively will be targeted by 2030.