Ho Chi Minh City’s birth rate has remained low and continued dropping over the past years as more young people want to get married after 30 or do not plan on getting married at all, a recent survey showed.

About 300 students from the University of Labor and Social Affairs took part in the survey during a seminar organized by the General Office for Population and Family Planning.

More than two-thirds of the participants said they want to get marriage after 30 years old or do not want to get married.

This reflects a common situation in Ho Chi Minh City and other southern localities with rapid socio-economic development and urbanization, said Nguyen Thi Ngoc Lan, deputy head of the General Office for Population and Family Planning.

More and more young people are planning on late marriage, do not want to have children, or intend to have fewer kids, which is all attributed to the declining birth rate in the region.

Twenty-one out of Vietnam’s 63 provinces and cities currently have a low birth rate, Lan stated, adding that most of them are located in the southern region.

Ho Chi Minh City’s birth rate decreased from 1.68 children per mother in 2013 to 1.39 children per mother in 2019, the official elaborated.

In 2016, the city’s birth rate dropped to 1.24 children per mother, she added.

The figure exceeds 2.5 children per mother in localities with high fertility rates.

According to Nguyen Dinh Cu, an official from the Institute for Population, Family and Children, employment, accommodations, and parenting expenses are some factors that result in a low birth rate among young people.

A low birth rate will eventually lead to population aging, labor shortage, and the increasing gap in living standards among different regions and population groups.

To deal with the issue, the General Office for Population and Family Planning encourages couples in localities with low birth rates to have at least two children.

Authorities should also provide more favorable conditions for them to buy and rent houses, as well as supplying more reproductive healthcare services.

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