Vietnam's urban population ranks sixth in East Asia

Vietnam’s urban population is estimated at 23 million as of 2010, the six largest in East Asia, according to a study by the World Bank released on January 26.

Vietnam is witnessing the rapid growth of the Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City urban areas.

From 2000 to 2010, Vietnam’s urban population increased by 7 million, from 19% of the total population to 26%, with urban density rising from 6,800 people per square kilometre to 7,700.

The World Bank notes that Vietnam’s urban landscape is dominated by the rapid growth of two large urban areas, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, which have vastly increased in land size while remaining very dense.

It predicts that if they continue to grow at the current rate of 3.8% and 4% respectively, in 2020 these two urban areas will be twice as large as they were in 2000.

The report adds that they are expanding much faster than other Vietnamese urban areas with more than half of urban land in the country in these two regions and 75% of new urban spatial growth occurring there.

According to the World Bank, almost all urban areas in Vietnam are becoming denser while the Ho Chi Minh City area, the most populous one, saw a slight reduction in density from 2000 to 2010 despite an addition of 2.5 million urban residents.

The slight drop in population density for the overall Ho Chi Minh City urban area is due entirely to the growth in Ho Chi Minh City’s surrounding provinces where there have been large new industrial developments, says the World Bank.

The bank points out that more than two thirds of new urban expansion since 2000 occurred outside Ho Chi Minh City, mostly in Binh Duong province, and 47% of Ho Chi Minh City urban area as of 2010 was outside the city itself.

In contrast to the mostly unified cluster of the Ho Chi Minh City urban area, the Hanoi urban area is characterised by many dispersed small towns and cities connecting to more continuous corridors of development along highways.

As a result, the Red River Delta where Hanoi is located has twice the built-up land than the southeast region, which includes Ho Chi Minh City, although it is not much more populated.

(Source: nhandan.org.vn)