serious consequences of continuously decreasing birth rates
Spending most of her day working and developing her personal skills, Duong Quynh Thu (27 years old, living in Ho Chi Minh City) is no longer too busy getting married and having children, despite the pressure from her family many times.
Quynh Thu said that she is not ready to become a wife and the daughter-in-law of the whole extended family.
Not only Quynh Thu, many other young people are also struggling to get used to their work and stabilize their lives before thinking about having a small family.
Tran Huyen Trang (29 years old, living in Ho Chi Minh City) shared: "My current lover and I planned to get married and have a baby as soon as we both had stable finances, but now we can't, even though we really want to".
Speaking to Lao Dong Newspaper, MSc. Pham Chanh Trung - Head of the Ho Chi Minh City Population Department - said that Vietnam's fertility rate has decreased to only 1.91 children/woman, which can be said to be the lowest ever, which is a worrying sign, reflecting many profound changes in society, economy and psychology of the people.
"A prolonged low birth rate will also leave many serious and long-term consequences for the country's development" - Mr. Trung emphasized.
According to Mr. Pham Chanh Trung, the impacts of prolonged low birth rates include: Rapid population aging; future labor shortage; increased social security burden; pressure on the health system in caring for the elderly; impact on economic growth and eventually affect the family and social structure.
Mr. Trung also said that Vietnam is at risk of aging before becoming rich, missing the golden population opportunity, especially with a shortage of labor force in the future.
A series of solutions to increase the total birth rate in Ho Chi Minh City
Currently, Ho Chi Minh City is in the group of 21 provinces and cities with the lowest birth rate in the country, with the total birth rate in 2024 reaching only 1.39 children/woman, significantly lower than the national average of 1.91.
Statistics from 2000 show that the birth rate in Ho Chi Minh City has continuously decreased and dropped to a very low level in 2016 with only 1.24 children/woman. Except for 2013, which showed signs of a slight recovery (1.68), the upward trend has been almost uncessible for more than two decades.
Faced with this situation, Ho Chi Minh City has determined that it is necessary to promote state management of population, thereby proposing and issuing appropriate policies to respond to the situation of having few children. Policies need to be built on the basis of analyzing and comprehensively assessing the impact of factors such as labor - employment, housing, social welfare, education, health... on the decision to have children of couples.
According to the Comprehensive Health Care Project for the City's residents and some solutions to contribute to increasing the total birth rate for the period 2025 - 2030 approved by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee on May 26, Ho Chi Minh City also aims to strengthen communication work, raising public awareness of the importance of having two children. At the same time, it is necessary to implement substantial support policies such as: Supporting infertility treatment for poor, near-poor, and disadvantaged households; piloting the provision of reproductive health care services, family planning and supporting mothers during pregnancy and raising young children through online platforms and social networks.
Prolonged low birth rate not only causes natural population growth rate to decline but also rapidly changes the city's population structure. The population aging rate will occur faster than expected, creating great pressure on the social security system and leading to a serious shortage of human resources, especially young labor - a key factor in the sustainable socio-economic development of Ho Chi Minh City in the future.
