Ta Quang Huy, vice chief of the Hanoi Population and Family Planning Bureau, said on November 11 that the capital city’s annual average population growth rate from 1999 to 2009 is 2 percent. At this rate, Hanoi has an additional o200,000 people a year. Half are children. Meanwhile, the country’s average growth rate is 1.2 percent.

The census also shows Dong Da district has the highest population density in Hanoi, with over 35,000 people living in one square kilometer, compared to the country’s average density of 259 people/1sq.km.

Huy said the capital city aims to stabilise natural population growth rates between 1.1 and 1.15 percent from now until 2015.

PV