HANOI, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- Vietnamese people have a relatively high life expectancy compared to other countries with the same living standards, but have a higher number of years living with illness, Vietnam News Agency reported on Thursday, citing Ministry of Health data.
The average life expectancy of Vietnamese people is now 73.6 years with women having a longer life expectancy than men.
It is worth mentioning that, on average, the elderly in Vietnam suffer three or four diseases, the report said.
Each Vietnamese person has an average of 10 years to live with illnesses. This greatly affects the quality of life and reduces the number of healthy life years, said the Ministry of Health.
Vietnam began its population aging period in 2011 with the number of people aged 65 and older accounting for 7 percent of the total population.
After 10 years, in 2021, the number rose to 8.3 percent of the total population, equivalent to 8.16 million elderly people.
It is predicted that Vietnam will have 16.8 million elderly people in 2039 and 25.2 million in 2069. ■
