The purpose of this paper is to study the demographic developments relating to the ethnic Chinese in Vietnam since 1954. The paper takes at its starting point the patterns of demographic change that have taken place since the mid-1950s. The patterns of demographic change display two periods of considerable decline in the number of ethnic Chinese. The first occurred during the second half of the 1950s in the then Republic of Vietnam (ROV) (South) and the other in the unified Vietnam in the late 1970s. The decline in the 1950s was not due to the migration of ethnic Chinese from Vietnam but rather the result of a large-scale process of naturalisation among the ethnic Chinese to Vietnamese citizenship in response to policies of the ROV compelling a large number of ethnic Chinese to become Vietnamese citizens. The decline in the 1970s was a real decline in the number of ethnic Chinese as displayed by the official censuses of 1976 and 1979. The period was characterised by large-scale migration of ethnic Chinese both from the former Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) (North) and from the former ROV. The policies of socialist transformation were a major factor in the exodus from the southern part of Vietnam in while in the northern part deteriorating relations between Vietnam and China triggered the exodus. Following the exodus of the late 1970s the ethnic Chinese population has continued to diminish as displayed by the official censuses of 1989 and 1999 but at a more moderate pace than in the late 1970s.