Vietnamese girl wearing Áo dài

Originating in what is now southern China and northern Vietnam, the Vietnamese people pushed southward over two millennia to occupy the entire eastern seacoast of the Indochinese Peninsula. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Vietnam (ˌviːɛtˈnɑːm Việt Nam) officially The Vietnamese people (người Việt or vi ''người Kinh'' are an Ethnic group originating from what is now northern Vietnam and southern China. Indochina, or the Indochinese Peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. Ethnic Vietnamese, or Viet (known officially as Kinh), live in the lowlands and speak the Vietnamese language. Vietnamese ( tiếng Việt, or less commonly Việt ngữ) formerly known under French colonization as Annamese ( see Annam) This group dominates much of the cultural and political landscape of Vietnam.

The Vietnamese government recognizes 54 ethnic groups, of which the Viet is the largest; according to official Vietnamese figures (1999 census), ethnic Vietnamese account for 86% of the nation's population. Vietnam is a multi-ethnic country with over fifty distinct groups (54 are recognized by the Vietnamese government each with its own language lifestyle and cultural heritage The ethnic Vietnamese inhabit a little less than half of Vietnam, while the ethnic minorities inhabit the majority of Vietnam's land (albeit the least fertile parts of the country).

The Khmer Krom are found in the delta of the Mekong River, in the south of Vietnam, where they form in many areas the majority of the rural population. The Khmer Krom ( Khmer:, Vietnamese: Khơ Me Crộm) - Khmer people living in the Delta and the Lower Mekong area The Mekong is one of the world’s major Rivers It is the 11th-longest river in the world and 7th longest in Asia They live in an area which was previously part of Cambodia and which Vietnam conquered in the 17th and 18th centuries. Official Vietnamese figures put the Khmer Krom at 1. 3 million people.

Vietnam's approximately 1 million ethnic Chinese, concentrated mostly in southern Vietnam, constitute one of Vietnam's largest minority groups. Hoa refers to a minority in Vietnam consisting of persons considered Long important in the Vietnamese economy, Vietnamese of Chinese ancestry have been active in rice trading, milling, real estate, and banking in the south and shopkeeping, stevedoring, and mining in the north. Restrictions on economic activity following reunification in 1975 and the subsequent but unrelated general deterioration in Vietnamese-Chinese relations sent chills through the Chinese-Vietnamese community.

The relation between China and Vietnam also declined in this period, with Vietnam siding with the Soviet Union against China in the Chinese-Soviet split. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 The Sino-Soviet split was a gradual divergence of diplomatic ties between the People's Republic of China (PRC and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR Tensions peaked when Vietnam invaded Cambodia, an ally of China, to depose Pol Pot, resulting in a Chinese invasion of Vietnam in 1979. Saloth Sar ( May 19, 1925 – April 15, 1998) also known as Pol Pot, was leader of the Communist movement known as The Sino–Vietnamese War, also known as the Third Indochina War, was a brief but bloody border war fought in 1979 between the People's Republic of China (PRC In 1978-79, some 450,000 ethnic Chinese left Vietnam by boat as refugees (many officially encouraged and assisted) or were expelled across the land border with China. However in recent years the government has performed an about turn and is encouraging overseas Hoa to return and invest.

The central highland peoples commonly termed Degar or Montagnards (mountain people) comprise two main ethnolinguistic groups--Malayo-Polynesian and Mon-Khmer. The Degar (referred to by French colonists as Montagnard) are the Indigenous peoples of the Central Highlands of Vietnam. The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 351 million speakers The Mon-Khmer languages are the autochthonous Language family of Southeast Asia. About 30 groups of various cultures and dialects are spread over the highland territory.

Other minority groups include the Cham--remnants of the once-mighty Champa Kingdom, conquered by the Vietnamese in the 15th century, Hmong, and Tai ("Thái"). The Cham people ( Vietnamese: người Chăm or người Chàm) are an ethnic group in Southeast Asia. The kingdom of Champa ( Chăm Pa in Vietnamese or Chiêm Thành in Hán Việt records was an Indianized kingdom and controlled what

Vietnamese is the official language of the country. Vietnamese ( tiếng Việt, or less commonly Việt ngữ) formerly known under French colonization as Annamese ( see Annam) It is a language pertaining to the Austroasiatic language family, a language family also including Khmer, Mon, etc. The Austro-Asiatic languages are a large Language family of Southeast Asia, and also scattered throughout India and Bangladesh. Khmer (ភាសាខ្មែរ or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. The Mon language is an Austroasiatic language spoken by the Mon, who live in Burma and Thailand. Vietnamese was spoken by 65. 8 million people in Vietnam at the 1999 census. Another 1. 6 million Vietnamese speakers are found outside of Vietnam. Thus Vietnamese is the most spoken language of the Austroasiatic family, being spoken by three times more people than the second most spoken language of the family, Khmer. Both languages, however, are extremely different: under the influence of Chinese, Vietnamese has become a tonal language, while Khmer has remained non-tonal. A tonal language is a language that uses tone to distinguish words Vietnamese was heavily influenced by Chinese and a great part of the Vietnamese vocabulary is Chinese, while Khmer was heavily influenced by Sanskrit and Pali and a great part of its vocabulary is now made up of Indian words, so that both languages look very dissimilar on the surface. Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical Pali ( ISO 15919 / ALA-LC: Pāḷi is a Middle Indo-Aryan language or Prakrit of India. Since the early 20th century, the Vietnamese have used a Romanized script introduced by the French. Previously, Chinese characters and an (see Vietnamese language). Vietnamese ( tiếng Việt, or less commonly Việt ngữ) formerly known under French colonization as Annamese ( see Annam)

See also: List of ethnic groups in Vietnam

Miscellaneous

Population: 83,689,518 (July 2005 est. Vietnam is a multi-ethnic country with over fifty distinct groups (54 are recognized by the Vietnamese government each with its own language lifestyle and cultural heritage )

Age structure:

0-14 years: 29. 4% (male 12,524,098; female 11,807,763)

15-64 years: 65% (male 26,475,156; female 27,239,543)

65 years and over: 5. 6% (male 1,928,568; female 2,714,390)

(2004 est. )

Population growth rate: 1. 3% (2004 est. )

Birth rate: 19. 58 births/1,000 population (2004 est. )

Death rate: 6. 14 deaths/1,000 population (2004 est. )

Net migration rate: -0. 45 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2004 est. )

Demographics of Vietnam, Data of FAO, year 2005 ; Number of inhabitants in thousands.

Sex ratio:

at birth: 1. 08 male(s)/female

under 15 years: 1. 06 male(s)/female

15-64 years: 0. 97 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0. 71 male(s)/female

total population: 0. 98 male(s)/female (2004 est. )

Infant mortality rate:

total: 29. 88 deaths/1,000 live births

male: 33. 71 deaths/1,000 live births

female: 25. 77 deaths/1,000 live births (2004 est. )

Life expectancy at birth:

total population: 70. 35 years

male: 67. 86 years

female: 73. 02 years (2004 est. )

Total fertility rate: 1. 89 children born/woman (2007 est. )

Nationality:

noun: Vietnamese (singular and plural)

adjective: Vietnamese

Ethnic groups: Kinh (Viet) 86. The Vietnamese people (người Việt or vi ''người Kinh'' are an Ethnic group originating from what is now northern Vietnam and southern China. 2%, Tay 1. 9%, Thai 1. The Thai (or Tai) are the main ethnic group of Thailand and are part of the larger Tai ethnolinguistic peoples found in Thailand and adjacent countries 7%, Muong 1. The Mường is the third largest of Vietnam ’s 53 minority groups with an estimated population of 1 5%, Khmer 1. The Khmer people are the predominant Ethnic group in Cambodia, accounting for approximately 90% of the 14 4%, Hoa 1. Hoa refers to a minority in Vietnam consisting of persons considered 1%, Nun 1. 1%, Hmong 1%, others 4. The terms Hmong (m̥ɔ̃ŋ and Mong ( both refer to an Asian ethnic group in the mountainous regions of southern China. 1% (1999 census)

Religions:^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

• Buddhism - 85% (only 10 million people have taken the Refuge^[6][7])
  • Secular/Triple religions - 80%
  • Hoa Hao - 3%
  • Theravada Buddhism - 2%
• Christianity- 8%
  • Roman Catholic- 7%
  • Protestant- 1%
• Cao Dai - 3%
• indigenous animistic beliefs/others- 3%
• Muslim-0. Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices In lay and monastic ordination ceremonies Buddhists take the Three Refuges in the Three Jewels and are said to "take refuge Secularity ( adjective form secular) is the state of being separate from Religion. The earliest established religions in Vietnam are Mahayana Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism (called the "triple religion" or Hòa Hảo is a religious tradition based on Buddhism, founded in 1939 by Huynh Phu So, a native of the Mekong River Delta region of southern Vietnam History Origin of the school The Theravāda school is ultimately derived from the Vibhajjavāda (or 'doctrine of analysis' grouping which was a continuation Protestantism refers to the forms of Christian faith and practice that originated in the 16th century Protestant Reformation. Cao Đài ( Vietnamese:) is a relatively new syncretist, Monotheistic Religion, officially established in Tây Ninh, A Muslim (مسلم pronounced Muslim, not Muzlim) is an adherent of the Religion 08%

Languages: Vietnamese (official), English (most taught second language in schools), French, Russian, tribal languages (Tai-Kadai, Cham, and Malayo-Polynesian), Korean)

Literacy:

definition: age 15 and over can read and write

total population: 94% (2004 consensus)

male: 96. Vietnamese ( tiếng Việt, or less commonly Việt ngữ) formerly known under French colonization as Annamese ( see Annam) English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages The Tai-Kadai languages, also known as Kadai, Kradai, or Kra-Dai languages and in China as Zhuang-Dong languages are a tonal Cham is the language of the Cham people of Southeast Asia, and formerly the language of the kingdom of Champa in central Vietnam The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 351 million speakers This article is mainly about the spoken Korean language See Hangul for details on the native Korean writing system 9%

female: 91. 9% (2002)

Sources

• 1999 Census results
• Socioeconomic Atlas of Vietnam

References

See also

• List of ethnic groups in Vietnam