Chapter 7
The Elderly Population in Vietnam during
Economic Transformation: An Overview
Giang Thanh Long and Wade Donald Pfau

Abstract
Many studies have suggested that under the context of high economic growth and strong
flows of laborers from rural to urban areas, living arrangements of elderly people, particularly elderly women, and family relations will be more vulnerable to a variety of socialand economic risks. This paper, using the Vietnam (Household) Living Standard Surveys
for 1992/93, 1997/98, 2002, and 2004, will examine the issue by decomposing the elderly
population in Vietnam with regard to various aspects of aging. With an investigation ofnumerous variables such as education, household living arrangements, and housing conditions, it is found that family structures have generally been maintained in Vietnam,
although social and economic contexts have changed rapidly since Doi moi. We find a relatively high proportion of elderly people living with their children, particularly their married sons. In addition, the elderly are not simply dependents in the households; indeed,
they are still contributing to the households in various ways. A detailed decomposition ofdata on the elderly people, however, shows that women have certain disadvantages incomparison with men due to lower education, higher levels of widowhood, and living
alone. There is also a big disparity between elderly people living in urban and rural areas,
and between the elderly populations of different regions. Another striking finding is thatduring the past decade, the poverty rates for elderly people were actually lower than thosefor nonelderly people, and the highest poverty rates occurred among very young or very
old people.

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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the participants of the Second Vietnam
Development Forum (VDF)-Tokyo Conference on the Development of Vietnam on 15 July, 2006 at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies(GRIPS), Tokyo; the VDF-Hanoi Seminar Series on 19 August, 2006 at theVietnam Development Forum (VDF) in Hanoi; and the Fifth International Conference of the Japanese Economic Policy Association (JEPA) on 2–3 December, 2006 at Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo, for providing various invaluable comments and suggestions.
We are thankful to a number of colleagues from the National Economics University, Hanoi and the Vietnam National Academy of Social Sciences for spending ample time with us discussing data analysis and policy
implications.
We are also grateful to Dr. Armando Barrientos, a Research Fellow at
the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, the UK, for
his insightful comments as well as constructive encouragements to pursue
poverty issues of the elderly population in Vietnam.

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1. Introduction
The elderly populations in many countries are growing and will continue to grow in the coming years, both in absolute numbers and as a percentageof the population. According to the medium-variant population projections of
the United Nations (2004), there are about 610 million people aged 60 and over(or 10 percent of the world population in 2000), and this number is expected to
grow to around 1.9 billion people (or 22 percent of the world population) in
2050. These demographic trends have mostly resulted from decreasing fertility
rates and increasing life expectancy. In addition to such demographic changes,
some studies on the elderly population, such as those of Mason (1992) and
Schwarz (2003), raised a concern that economic transformation with urbanization and increasing migration might weaken the traditional family structure,
which would leave more elderly people without the traditional support and carefrom their families.
Vietnam, as one of the fastest growing economies in the world, isindeed experiencing the changes just described. The medium-variant projections of the United Nations (2004) indicate that the elderly population in Vietnam will increase significantly from 7.5 percent of the total population in 2005
to about 26 percent in 2050. The demographic dependency ratio will be driven
mostly by the elderly dependency ratio as the child population will increase at a
slower pace. Of the current elderly population, a majority are living in rural anddisadvantaged areas. Moreover, swift economic transformation since Doi moi
has had significant impacts on all areas of society, especially with the changesof economic structure from agriculture-based to industrial production, andurbanization with strong flows of laborers from rural to urban areas. Though
great successes, such as rapid poverty reduction and considerable improvementof living standards, have been widely acknowledged, many groups of people,
including the elderly, are still living in poor and vulnerable conditions (Le etal., 2005). Given the low coverage of the social security systems in Vietnam,
the situation may become worse if there is not an appropriate response from thegovernment to these continuing changes. Therefore, studies of various socialand economic aspects of the elderly population need to be carried out so as toenable appropriate responses for the social welfare policies.

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Guided by such research needs, this paper seeks to quantify the extent
and the evolution of the elderly population in Vietnam by using the Vietnam(Household) Living Standards Surveys for 1992/93, 1997/98, 2002, and 2004.
Specifically, the paper will answer such questions as how are the living
arrangements of the elderly changing; are the elderly contributing to theirhouseholds, and are there important differences between regions of the country,
or between urban and rural residents?
To accomplish these goals, we first review the existing studies on theelderly population in Vietnam. Then, we present our data and methodology, as
well as advantages and limitations of the data. This is followed by our analysis
and implications for social welfare policies. The last section will present concluding remarks and directions for further studies.
In providing an overview of the Vietnamese elderly population during
economic transformation, some key findings of this paper include:• The elderly population has grown during the past decade, as has the number of elderly living alone.
• We consider three types of elderly households: those where an elderly person is the head of the household, where the elderly is dependent on others,
and where the elderly is living alone. We find that the increase in the elderly living alone was offsetting households where the elderly weredependent on others.
• Women experience more disadvantages, such as widowhood and lack of
education.
• Data on working status and housework show that the elderly people werestill active contributors to the households in various ways.
• Poverty rates have been falling in each of the surveys, though the highest
poverty rates remained among the very young and very old.
• Housing conditions for the elderly have significantly improved over time.
• Generally, the elderly of Vietnam did not face a situation worse than that
faced by younger people. Family bonds appeared to remain strong, and theelderly were taken care of.
• Age 60 is too young to be defined as elderly. The hardships of old age do
not come until later ages.

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2. Previous Studies on the Elderly Population in Vietnam:
A Review
Research on the elderly population in Vietnam has grown rapidly inthe past decade, and different survey data have been used to analyze the elderly
people and their households. For example, Hirschman and Vu (1996) used the1991 Vietnam Life History Survey, which was a survey of 403 households during January–March 1991 in four areas, i.e., a rural village and an urban area innorthern Vietnam (in the Red River Delta), and a rural village and an urban area
in southern Vietnam (in the Mekong River Delta). The purpose of their study
was to analyze the impacts of Confucian thought on contemporary family andhousehold structure, and find out how these impacts varied between the tworegions.
Another set of two regional surveys on Vietnamese persons aged 60
and over has been used extensively by many studies, such as Truong et al.
(1997) and Knodel et al. (2000). These surveys, which were conducted in the
Red River Delta (including Hanoi) in 1996, and in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC)
and its six adjacent provinces in 1997, could provide various information aboutrural and urban diversity, household composition, and household relations interms of support and care.
In addition to the above microdata surveys, a variety of studies also
used larger survey samples to accomplish their research goals. Bui et al. (1999)
used the 1994 Vietnam Inter-censal Demographic Survey in combination withthose regional surveys to explore living arrangements of the elderly in two
regions. To compare living arrangements of the elderly and their households
over time, Knodel and Truong (2002) used the 5 percent public use sample ofthe 1989 Census and the 3 percent public use sample of the 1999 Census. Morerecently, Barbieri (2006) used the 3 percent public use sample of the 1999 Census and the Vietnam Living Standard Survey (VLSS) 1997/98 to analyze rates
of coresidence and flows of remittances between the elderly and their children.
Some common trends emerged from these studies even though they
drew on numerous surveys with different sizes and characteristics. First, thepopulation showed a clear aging process that was faster than official population
projections by the United Nations (Knodel and Truong, 2002). By marital sta-

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Giang Thanh Long and Wade Donald Pfautus, all of the studies showed that majority of the elderly people (over 95 percent) were married or widowed, and widowhood was more common among
rural residents and women (Truong et al., 1997). In terms of education, which
was measured by schooling and literacy, the studies also indicated that thefemale elderly were much more disadvantaged than were their male peers, andurban residents had higher educational levels than did their rural counterparts(Friedman et al., 2002).
Second, living arrangements of the elderly and their households indicated that family relations remained strong in Vietnam despite substantialchanges in social and economic conditions. The studies all indicated that only asmall share of the elderly were living alone, and most were living with or nearby their children. Also, coresidence rates did vary between regions and areas(Hirschman and Vu, 1996; Bui et al., 1999; Friedman et al., 2002). Among
those who were living with adult children, a majority preferred to live with married sons, particularly in the Red River Delta (Knodel et al., 2000). In addition,
coresidence depended on marital status of the elderly, e.g., both non-married
men and non-married women were considerably more likely to live with a married child than were their currently married counterparts (Friedman et al.,2002). Among those who were not living with children, men were more likely
to live with a spouse, and women were more likely to live alone (Barbieri,
2006). Similarly, Knodel et al. (2000) showed that more than half of non-coresident elderly in the north and over two-thirds in the south lived adjacent to orvery near to a child. The situation for the childless elderly was not worse as
they lived with an adult relative or spouse, and only 12 percent of them in thenorth and a third of them in the south lived alone.
Also relevant to family relations is the support and care between theelderly and their children. Hirschman and Vu (1996) found a relatively high frequency of visiting or making contacts between adult children and their parents.
About 60 percent of adult children who lived nearby their parents saw them
daily, and most of the rest saw them at least once a week. Truong et al. (1997)
found that exchanges of food, clothes, and other goods were fairly common
between elderly parents and their children in all regions, and economic support
from within the family was more important than non-family support. Similarfindings also indicated in Bui et al. (1999) that family support from both coresi-

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dent and non-coresident children was the main source of support and care forthe elderly (42 percent in the north and 66 percent in the south). The type of
support showed regional difference, as foodstuff was popular in the north, while
cash was substantial in the south. Knodel et al. (2000) also showed that children
frequently provided material support to their parents, and that there was regional difference in support type and child proximity to parents. A U-shaped relationship was observed for such provision and child proximity to parents, and it
was even more pronounced for regular provision of money and expensive
goods. Evaluating family support with such questions as whether a child is an
important source of the elderly’s income, and material transfers (food ormoney) from children to parents, Friedman et al. (2002) showed that southernelderly were more likely to report that children were main contributors tohousehold income than were northern elderly, and nonmarried elderly weremore likely to claim a child as a main contributor than were married elderly.
Moreover, the study indicated that in general that there was no clear gender pattern in the receipt of intergenerational support by the Vietnamese elderly. By
exploring gender and coresidence factors, Barbieri (2006) observed that remittance was a major alternative form of support from children to their parents;
about 20 percent of the elderly had received remittance from a non-coresident
child in the previous 12 months, 16 percent from a son, and 12 percent from adaughter. Sons tended to send support more often than did daughters (25 percent vs. less than 20 percent of all elderly households), and older elderly
received support more often than did younger elderly. Further, with multivariate
analysis, the study confirmed that women were more likely than were men to
receive from both sons and daughters (in contrast to the findings of Friedman etal., 2002), and the non-coresident elderly were more likely to receive than were
the ones coresiding with children. Urban and wealthier elderly were more likely
to receive support from their children than were their rural and poor peers. The
study then suggested that intensification of migration did not jeopardize intergenerational solidarities and that children continued to support their elderly parents, particularly in vulnerable cases.
One common and critical finding from these studies was that only amodest percentage of elderly people received pensions or welfare payments,and such payments were rarely a main source of income (Bui et al. 1999;

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Knodel and Truong, 2002). Particularly, the relative dependence of non-marriedelderly women on non-pension state payments, which were small and less frequently paid, indicated their relative vulnerability to social and economic risks.
If family support gradually erodes, maintaining the livelihood of such people
could become a greater public policy need.
A third common trend that emerged was that many elderly people
remained active, either working for various types of enterprises or doing housework. Bui et al. (1999) pointed out that the working rate of the elderly was 41
percent for the north and 35 percent for the south. By gender, Friedman et al.
(2002) showed that there was almost no gender difference in the elderly working rate in the north (42 percent for men vs. 41 percent for women), but a significant difference in the south (46 percent for men vs. 28 percent for women).
Both economic structure and culture could help explain these regional differences. In addition, Knodel and Truong (2002) found that women were less economically active for all older age groups, but were active in housework. Also,
economic activity rates among older people in urban areas were considerably
lower than those of their rural peers.
Fourth, living conditions for the elderly have clearly been improving
over time. The results from Knodel and Truong (2002) showed that housing
conditions significantly improved. More elderly people, particularly in rural
areas, were likely to access mass media such as TV and radio, use better toilets,
and have electricity as the main source of lighting.
Although these existing studies could provide informative and thorough measures on living arrangements of the Vietnamese elderly, they did not
make a distinction between the elderly who were household heads and those
who were dependents in the household, except for the study by Hirschman andVu (1996). This distinction is potentially quite important. As indicated in manystudies on the family relations in elderly households, such as Schwarz (2003)
and HelpAge International (2004), the elderly would feel confident if they
could control some resources, and family members would not consider them as
a burden. Distinguishing the role of elderly people in their households will help
to show how they are treated when their economic and social status changes.
Moreover, the reviewed studies also did not provide any information
about the poverty status of the Vietnamese elderly over time. Analysis of the192The Elderly Population in Vietnam during Economic Transformation: An Overview

elderly’s poverty incidence will provide useful information about their vulnerability relative to that of the rest of the population. This information can thenhelp the government in making appropriate social welfare policies to protect theelderly from various social and economic risks. Data limitations might be oneof the reasons for such missing analysis in the existing studies.

3. Data and Methodology
We use the Vietnam (Household) Living Standard Surveys for theyears 1992/93, 1997/98, 2002, and 2004. These surveys were conducted by theGeneral Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO), along with other international
agencies as a part of the World Bank’s Living Standard Measurement Surveys.
Detailed descriptions of these surveys can be found in numerous research
reports, such as Grosh and Glewwe (1998), GSO (2004 a, b), and World Bank
(2000, 2001, and 2005).
The surveys are organized by household, but they also include somecharacteristics for individuals in the household, such as age, gender, relationship to household head, marital status, working status, salary, health, and education. This structure lets us identify the elderly people as well as the households
that include elderly people. In this paper, we consider the elderly as people whoare at least 60 years old, and the elderly households are those with at least one
elderly person. Table 1 provides information on the sample sizes for the four
surveys.
At the household level, the surveys provide extensive data on sourcesof income, business and agricultural enterprises, detailed household expenditures, ownership of consumer durables, poverty incidence, poverty alleviation
programs, wealth, and housing conditions. The households are representative of
the entire Vietnamese population, both urban and rural, and across the regions,so that we can provide an overview of the elderly population for Vietnam as awhole.
The data has some limitations. Firstly, we generally only have information about relatives who live in the same household (particularly in the later
surveys), and therefore it is difficult to identify other relatives who may be living nearby or migrating to other areas. These relatives are extremely important

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when we consider their support from/to the elderly people. Thus, for instance,
while we know about receipt of remittances, we cannot say what percentage of
non-coresident children provide them. Secondly, besides wages, most income
sources are only identified at the household level, so it is not clear which member is the source of the income. Wealth data is also only available at the household level. This limits the analysis of intra-household sharing. Thirdly, somesurvey questions change over time. This includes questions in which the answer
categories change. Also, some interesting questions only appear in the earlier
surveys (e.g., a list of children living outside the household, a detailed list ofremittances sent and received by the household, and individualized information
about health status), while other interesting questions are not added until thelater surveys (mainly, detailed information about a variety of income sources
for the household). This inconsistent structure again limits our comparative
study between years.
We will analyze our research objectives by using simple tabulationsof data for each survey to observe trends over time. Since data are representative for the entire Vietnamese population, we can observe changes in living
arrangements and other characteristics of the Vietnamese elderly during the past
decade as they experienced profound social and economic changes.

4. Results and Analysis
The elderly population will be analyzed along different aspects, suchas gender, age, areas, and regions. We consider general characteristics of the
population, living arrangements, working status, housing conditions, and poverty situation.

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4.1. General characteristics of the population
Table 2 provides general information about the Vietnamese population with regard to the elderly and nonelderly. First, we can observe aging of
the population in Vietnam, as the percent of the population in the older age
brackets grew over time. For instance, the percentage of the population aged 80
and older grew from 0.73 percent in 1992/93 to 1.5 percent in 2004.
We also find that the elderly population accounted for 9.9 percent of
the whole population in 2004, and this figure was slightly higher than the projections of the United Nations (2004), at only 7.5 percent. Along with the aging
process, we also could see an increasing percentage in the elderly population of
females (from 56.81 percent in 1992/93 to 58.42 percent in 2004) and of widows (from 33.9 percent in 1992/93 to 36.99 percent in 2004).

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The data also show that the majority of the elderly lived in rural areas(over 70 percent), but this percentage decreased over time on account of
increasing urbanization. In addition, the data show that almost half of the elderly population was living in the Red River Delta and the Mekong River Delta,
where agriculture-based activities are still popular. By marital status, most of
the elderly people were married or widowed (over 97 percent). Figure 1 showsthat the elderly women were less likely to be married than elderly men. As
explained in Knodel and Truong (2002), the situation could be attributable toseveral factors, including differences in life expectancy between males andfemales. Widowhood is common among rural residents and women.

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As indicated in Table 3, educational background of the elderly people, which is measured by reading and writing ability, varied with gender, marital status, area, and region.
By gender, the estimated results show that the elderly women had aclear disadvantage in comparison with their male peers, although the gap between
males and females was getting smaller. Moreover, urban residents and younger
elderly had stronger educational backgrounds than did their rural and older counterparts. By marital status, the data indicate that the widowed elderly tended tohave lower educational backgrounds than the married and nonmarried elderly,
and the married elderly had the highest rate of reading and writing ability. One
critical detail can be seen if we look at educational gap between regions. The elderly in poor regions such as the North West and the Central Highlands, which are
isolated and remote areas, had the lowest rates of reading and writing ability, andthis situation might in turn prevent them from accessing social services.

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