Country
Vietnam Haiti
Leader
President: Truong Tan Sang
President: Michel Martelly
Population
92,477,857 9,893,934
Life Expectancy
72.650 years 62.850 years
Capital City
Hanoi Port-au-Prince
Largest city
Thanh pho Ho Chi Minh (population: 3,467,330) Port-au-Prince (population: 1,234,740)
Human Development Index
0.718 0.521
GDP per capita
$3,500 US $1,300 US
Literacy Rate
90.3% 52.9%
Corruption Perception Index
2.7 1.4
Percentage of Women in Parliament
25.8% 5.2%
Wealthiest Citizens
Unemployment Rate
4.500% 40.600%
Death Penalty
Legal Abolished
Political System
Communist state republic
Independence date
2 September 1945 (from France) 1 January 1804 (from France)
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 80%, Protestant 16% (Baptist 10%, Pentecostal 4%, Adventist 1%, other 1%), none 1%, other 3% note: roughly half of the population practices voodoo
Languages
Vietnamese (official), English (increasingly favored as a second language), some French, Chinese, and Khmer; mountain area languages (Mon-Khmer and Malayo-Polynesian) French (official), Creole (official)
Exports
crude oil, marine products, rice, coffee, rubber, tea, garments, shoes apparel, manufactures, oils, cocoa, mangoes, coffee
External Debt
$41,850,000,000 $ $1,125,000,000 US
Exchange Rate
dong (VND) per US dollar - 16,548.3 (2008 est.), 16,119 (2007), 15,983 (2006), 15,746 (2005), NA (2004) gourdes (HTG) per US dollar - 39.216 (2008 est.), 37.138 (2007), 40.232 (2006), 40.449 (2005), 38.352 (2004)
Military Budget as percentage of GDP
2.500% 0.400%
Beijing Olympics Medal Count
1 0
Location
Southeastern Asia, bordering the Gulf of Thailand, Gulf of Tonkin, and South China Sea, alongside China, Laos, and Cambodia Caribbean, western one-third of the island of Hispaniola, between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, west of the Dominican Republic
Area
331,210 km sq 27,750 km sq
Coastline
3,444 km 1,771 km
Climate
tropical in south; monsoonal in north with hot, rainy season (May to September) and warm, dry season (October to March) tropical; semiarid where mountains in east cut off trade winds