Summary
The 1991 Vietnam Life History Survey is a cross-sectional study conducted to examine households and individuals in Vietnam. A 2-part survey was conducted, the first part focused on the respondents' household as the unit of analysis, information was collected for up to 15 respondents, although most households had only 4 to 6 respondents. The second part of the survey focused on individuals, the respondent's position in the household and their personal background. In the Individual dataset, observations were collected for up to 15 of the respondent's siblings. The 2 parts examined 4 samples of about 100 households, each stratified by region and urban/rural status in Vietnam with the household survey containing 403 household responses and the individual survey containing 921 respondents. Demographic variables in the Household dataset include region, household configuration, socioeconomic status, gender, ethnicity, appliance ownership, and house construction. Demographic variables in the Individual dataset include information on parents and siblings, familial occupations, ethnicity, sex, education, job history, marital status, and children information.
Citation
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Funding
Social Science Research Council. Indochina Scholarly Exchange Program
Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage
Smallest Geographic Unit
village
Time Period(s)
1926 -- 1991
Date of Collection
1991-01-15 -- 1991-03-11
Data Collection Notes
All values of 98/9998 labeled "NA (Not Applicable)" and/or 99/9999 labeled "Missing", "DK (Don't Know)", etc. are recognized as missing values in the ICPSR codebook.
Variables about a respondents life history were coded from their completion of a life history matrix. See original documentation for explanation of matrix.
The Household and Individual datasets both contain unknown codes.
Study Design
Data on households and individuals generated from 4 samples of about 100 households each, stratified by region and urban/rural status. Part 1 (Household Data) was administered as a household survey and Part 2 (Individual Data) was an individual questionnaire.
Sample
There were 4 samples of about 100 households each stratified by region and urban/rural status. The 4 sample areas were: an urban sample from Can Tho (a city of 284,000 about 170 km south of Ho Chi Minh City in the Mekong Delta), an urban sample from Hai Duong (a city of about 110,000 about 50 kilometers east of Hanoi), a rural sample from Tien Tien commune, (about 6 kilometers from Hai Duong city), and rural sample from the village of Long Hoa near Can Tho in the south.
Universe
All households in Vietnam.
Unit(s) of Observation
individual
household
Data Source
survey data
survey data
Mode of Data Collection
face-to-face interview
Description of Variables
Survey data, household roster, and Life History Matrix. Part 1 contains 299 variables pertaining to household life. Specifically, variables in Part 1 (Household Data) include information on household structure, socio-economic factors, and household expenses. Part 2 (Individual Data) contains 2,192 variables pertaining to individuals inside of a household. These variables pertain to family life, employment history, and residence information.
Original Release Date
2011-08-10
Version Date
2011-08-10
Version History
2011-08-10 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Performed consistency checks.
- Created variable labels and/or value labels.
- Standardized missing values.
- Created online analysis version with question text.
- Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Notes
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

This study was originally processed, archived, and disseminated by Data Sharing for Demographic Research (DSDR), a project funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).