President: Nguyen Minh Triet Secretary-general of the Communist Party : Nguyen Phu Trong
Population
21,032
91,519,289
Life Expectancy
72.060 years
72.410 years
Capital City
Hanoi
Largest city
Meyungs (population: 1,275)
Thanh pho Ho Chi Minh (population: 3,467,330)
Human Development Index
0
0.718
GDP per capita
$3,400 US
Literacy Rate
92%
90.3%
Corruption Perception Index
NA
2.7
Percentage of Women in Parliament
0%
25.8%
Wealthiest Citizens
Unemployment Rate
2.300%
Death Penalty
Abolished
Legal
Political System
constitutional government in free association with the US; the Compact of Free Association entered into force 1 October 1994
Communist state
Independence date
2 September 1945 (from France)
Religions
Roman Catholic 41.6%, Protestant 23.3%, Modekngei 8.8% (indigenous to Palau), Seventh-Day Adventist 5.3%, Jehovah's Witness 0.9%, Latter-Day Saints 0.6%, other 3.1%, unspecified or none 16.4% (2000 census)
Buddhist 9.3%, Catholic 6.7%, Hoa Hao 1.5%, Cao Dai 1.1%, Protestant 0.5%, Muslim 0.1%, none 80.8% (1999 census)
Languages
Palauan 64.7% official in all islands except Sonsoral (Sonsoralese and English are official), Tobi (Tobi and English are official), and Angaur (Angaur, Japanese, and English are official), Filipino 13.5%, English 9.4%, Chinese 5.7%, Carolinian 1.5%, Japanese 1.5%, other Asian 2.3%, other languages 1.5% (2000 census)
Vietnamese (official), English (increasingly favored as a second language), some French, Chinese, and Khmer; mountain area languages (Mon-Khmer and Malayo-Polynesian)
