President: Nguyen Minh Triet Secretary-general of the Communist Party : Nguyen Phu Trong
President: Francois Hollande Prime minister: Jean-Marc Ayrault
Population
91,519,289
65,630,692
Life Expectancy
72.410 years
81.460 years
Capital City
Hanoi
Paris
Largest city
Thanh pho Ho Chi Minh (population: 3,467,330)
Paris (population: 2,138,550)
Human Development Index
0.718
0.955
GDP per capita
$3,400 US
$35,600 US
Literacy Rate
90.3%
99%
Corruption Perception Index
2.7
6.9
Percentage of Women in Parliament
25.8%
19.6%
Wealthiest Citizens
NA
Bernard Arnault ($16.5bn US)
Unemployment Rate
2.300%
9.300%
Death Penalty
Legal
Abolished
Political System
Communist state
republic
Independence date
2 September 1945 (from France)
486 (Frankish tribes unified); 843 (Western Francia established from the division of the Carolingian Empire)
Religions
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)
Roman Catholic 83%-88%, Protestant 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim 5%-10%, unaffiliated 4% overseas departments: Roman Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, pagan
Languages
Vietnamese (official), English (increasingly favored as a second language), some French, Chinese, and Khmer; mountain area languages (Mon-Khmer and Malayo-Polynesian)
French 100%, rapidly declining regional dialects and languages (Provencal, Breton, Alsatian, Corsican, Catalan, Basque, Flemish) overseas departments: French, Creole patois
machinery and transportation equipment, aircraft, plastics, chemicals, pharmaceutical products, iron and steel, beverages
External Debt
$39,730,000,000 $
$5,633,000,000,000 US
Exchange Rate
dong (VND) per US dollar - 16,548.3 (2008 est.), 16,119 (2007), 15,983 (2006), 15,746 (2005), NA (2004)
euros (EUR) per US dollar - 0.6799 (2008 est.), 0.7345 (2007), 0.7964 (2006), 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004)
Military Budget as percentage of GDP
2.500%
2.600%
Beijing Olympics Medal Count
1
40
Location
Southeastern Asia, bordering the Gulf of Thailand, Gulf of Tonkin, and South China Sea, alongside China, Laos, and Cambodia
Western Europe, bordering the Bay of Biscay and English Channel, between Belgium and Spain, southeast of the UK; bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Italy and Spain
Area
331,210 km sq
643,801 km sq
Coastline
3,444 km
0 km
Climate
tropical in south; monsoonal in north with hot, rainy season (May to September) and warm, dry season (October to March)
