Press release “National Report on 2025 Civil Registration and Vital Statistics” and report “Causes of Death in Vietnam 2021-2025: Current Status and Emerging Trends”

Hanoi, November 12, 2026 – Viet Nam continues improving its civil registration and statistics system, and at the same time improve the quality of data on causes of death to provide complete, reliable and timely information for management and policy making. These are the main contents of the “National Report on Vital Statistics in 2025” and the report “Analysis on causes of death in Viet Nam based on Digital Civil Registration Database in the period 2021-2025” that are published at the workshop organized by the National Statistics Office in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Vital Strategies on November 12, 2026 in Ha Noi.

The workshop engages representatives of ministries, sectors, agencies, international organizations, development partners, media agencies, and data users at home and abroad. It offers a forum to share and discuss research results, assess difficulties and limitations in the process of data collection and analysis, and propose solutions to improve the quality of CRVS data as well as the system, including death cause data for policy making in Vietnam.

1. National report on Vital statistics in 2025: Many positive results, but there are still issues that to be addressed.

The “National Report on Vital Statistics in 2025” inherits the results of the National Report on Vital Statistics for the period 2021-2024 and expands the analysis and assessment of the quality and ability to utilize data from the digital CRVS database for constructing statistics.

The report shows that by 2025, Vietnam’s birth registration rate reached 83.9%, and the death registration rate was at 91.4%. Among registered cases, on-time birth registration rate (within 5 years of birth) reached 82.5%, while on-time death registration was 63.9%. The situation of late birth registration and death registration is more common in some ethnic minorities. Notably, the highest proportion of overdue birth registration is observed among the Xtieng ethnic group (60.3%) and Lo Lo (52.1%); while the highest proportion of overdue death registration is observed among the Chu Ru ethnic group (70.4%) and Ba Na (69.4%). These are issues that need to be paid further attention to ensure people’s right to civil registration and improve the completeness and timeliness of data.

Results of CRVS data analysis also unpacks population issues of concern. The total fertility rate in 2025 reached 1.66 children/woman, 0.18 children/woman lower than in 2024 and 0.2 children/woman lower than in 2023. The declining fertility rate continues to be a matter of concern, especially in the context of on-going changes in population size and structure in Viet Nam. The sex ratio at birth reached 110.1 boys per 100 girls, slightly reducing from 110.7 in 2024 but still above the natural biological balance threshold (104-106 boys per 100 girls), indicating that the gender imbalance at birth continues to be persistent.

In 2025, the average age of mothers giving birth was 28.7 years, down slightly from 28.8 years in 2024. However, significant differences were found among population groups by ethnicity: Chinese and Kinh women have the highest average age at childbirth, 29.6 and 29.2 years, respectively; while within the Mong and Xinh Mun ethnic groups, this age is 23.5 years.

In terms of mortality, the average age of death cases registered in 2025 was 70.4 years, up from 69.9 years in 2024. The average age of death for women was 76.3 years, 10.6 years higher than that of men (65.7 years).

2. Report on analysis of causes of death in Viet Nam in the period of 2021-2025: Diseases are the leading cause with several diseases being on an increasing trend.

The report “Analysis on causes of death in Viet Nam based on Digital Civil Registration Database in the period 2021 – 2025” has been developed based on analysis of death registration data, providing an overall picture of the structure and trend of causes of death in Viet Nam in the period 2021 – 2025[1].

The results show that disease was the leading cause of death, accounting for 64.5% of all deaths. Within death cases due to disease, only 28.0% of them revealed a clear cause of the disease, while 72.0% of cases had no specific cause identified. In addition to diseases, other categories of death causes include weakening due to old age (20.6%), ill-defined or unspecified causes of death (10.2%) and death caused by external factors (4.8%).

Among the death cases caused by diseases, cancer, stroke, myocardial infarction, cirrhosis, and kidney failure are notable causes, with the number of deaths trending to increase during the whole study period. In particular, the number of deaths due to cancer increased from 19.4 thousand cases in 2021 to 46.8 thousand cases in 2025, about 2.4 times higher. On average, 2 out of every 3 people who die from cancer are men. Similarly, the number of deaths due to stroke also tends to increase sharply, from 16.0 thousand cases in 2021 to 33.1 thousand cases in 2025, 2.07 times higher after 4 years. These results show that the burden of death from non-communicable diseases is an issue that needs attention in improving care and protection of people’s health.

For deaths caused by external factors/shocks, traffic accidents are the leading cause of death and there is a huge gender disparity – men account for 78.2% of all cases. Besides traffic accidents, drowning and suicide are also notable causes of death. Drowning deaths are highly concentrated among children, especially those under 15 years old, while men account for about three-quarters of drowning cases. As for suicide, the country recorded about 13.8 thousand cases in the period 2021-2025, of which men accounted for 78.8%. The majority of deaths by suicide among men are concentrated in the working age group (20-54 years old).

In addition to the results of the analysis of the structure and trends of deaths, the report also points out significant limitations in the quality of information on the cause of death. In the period 2021–2025, there were 285.2 thousand deaths with unknown causes in electronic civil status data, accounting for 10.2% of the total number of deaths registered for death. The proportion of deaths due to weakened old age also accounted for 20.6%, while up to 72.0% of deaths due to diseases had no specific cause.

This situation shows significant challenges in identifying and recording causes of death, affecting the ability to accurately analyze and assess the health situation and disease burden of the population. Therefore, it is imperative to continue to standardize the process of recording, confirming and coding causes of death; improve the professional capacity of community officials; and at the same time strengthen the connection and data sharing between the civil status registration system and the health sector.

3. To improve the civil status registration and statistics system, improve the quality of data for policy making

The results of the two reports affirm the important role of CRVS data not only in ensuring the right to register and establish vital events of each citizen, but also as an essential source of input data to build a complete, accurate and timely civil registration and population statistical system.

Through the effective use of the digital CRVS data system, state management agencies have more evidence to monitor population fluctuations, assess birth and death trends, population structure and people’s health situation; thereby providing reliable evidence for the formulation, implementation and evaluation of socio-economic development policies, as well as monitoring the progress of the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The reports contain important recommendations for the coming time, especially to continue improving the civil registration and statistics system toward ensuring completeness, timeliness, consistency and accuracy; strengthen the connection and sharing of data between relevant agencies; and at the same time improve the quality of information on the cause of death by improving the process of recording, confirming and coding the cause of death.

In particular, it is important to strengthen the coordination between civil registration management agencies and the health sector in collecting, collating, standardizing and using information; improve the professional capacity of officials in charge of CRVS and recording causes of death. The effective implementation of the above-mentioned solutions will contribute to improving the civil registration and vital statistics system, improving the quality of population and health statistics, creating a reliable data source for state management, administration and policy making, and meeting the requirements of national development in the emerging context.

[1] Based on the field of information on the cause of death recorded in the death registration data, the Statistics Office performs coding by comparing the description in this field with the list of causes of death in the community issued by the Ministry of Health . The analysis results reflect the cause of death recorded and encoded from civil status data, not replacing the determination of the cause of death according to medical expertise.