Central Highlands (Vietnam) - Demographics

Demographics

The Tay Nguyen region is home to a large population of ethnic minorities such as the people of Malayo-Polynesian languages (Jarai and Ede) and the people of Mon-Khmer languages (Bahnar and K'hor). They have made up the majority of the region's population for a long time. However, this changed over the last few decades due to immigration of Kinh people (ethnic Vietnamese). As of 2006, there was a Kinh majority in the Central Highlands, while there were still several districts that had a non-Kinh majority (most of them in Gia Lai Province).

The Central Highlands had a population of 4,935,200 people in 2007. As a result of resettlement campaigns of various governments (colonial, South Vietnam, post-war), the region's population has increased significantly. It was 420,000 in 1926, but had reached 2.8 million in 1991 and 4.2 million in 2000. Population growth between 2000 and 2007 averaged 2.24% per year, which is significantly higher than that of other regions, such as the South Central Coast (1.22%) and North Central Coast (0.86%). Growth has been particularly fast in Dak Nong Province with 4.76%, followed by Kon Tum Province with 2.64%.

The Central Highlands' population density is 72.2/km² as of 2007, higher than that of the South Central Coast (68.4), but lower than that of the North Central Coast (86.1). The most densely populated provinces are Dak Lak and Lam Dong, while Kon Tum is the least densely populated.