Vietnam ends two-child policy to address declining birth rates and aging population

A billboard campaigning for every household to have two youngsters in an effort to enhance the birth fee stands alongside the road in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (Image credit score: AP)

Vietnam has formally ended its long-standing two-child policy. The nation’s National Assembly amended the legislation on Tuesday that restricted households to having one or two youngsters. The information was confirmed by state media, Vietnam News Agency, on Wednesday. The resolution was made to enhance falling birth rates and address considerations about an aging population.Vietnam’s “golden population” interval – when the working age population outnumbered the dependent population- started in 2007 and might proceed till 2039. The working population is probably going to attain its peak in 2042, and the whole population might begin shrinking by 2054. This shift might gradual financial progress, as there can be fewer staff and extra older folks needing care and assist.In 1988, Vietnam banned {couples} from having greater than two youngsters, with the concept girls would spend much less time on childcare and give attention to working. However, the variety of youngsters a household can have is up to them to determine.Vietnamese households are having fewer youngsters than ever earlier than. The nation is witnessing traditionally low birth rates. In 2021, Vietnam’s birth fee was 2.11 youngsters per lady — barely above the extent wanted to preserve a secure population. But since then, it has steadily dropped: to 2.01 in 2022, 1.96 in 2023, and 1.91 in 2024.The decline in birth rates, particularly in city and economically developed cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, is principally due to the rising price of residing.Nguyen Thu Linh, 37 mentioned that she and her husband selected to have just one baby so they might present their 6-year-old son with the perfect training and upbringing they might afford.“Sometimes, I think about having another child so my son can have a sibling, but there’s so much financial and time pressure if you have another child,” Linh mentioned. Deputy well being minister Nguyen Thi Lien Huong mentioned at a convention earlier this 12 months that it’s changing into tougher to encourage households to have extra youngsters, even with policy adjustments and public consciousness campaigns.Expressing her concern, she added that the declining birth fee might influence long-term socio-economic improvement, together with an ageing population and workforce shortages.She urged society to change its mindset from simply specializing in household planning and constructed a broader perspective on dimensions like population and improvement.Vietnam can be scuffling with an unbalanced gender ratio due to long-standing choice for boys. The ministry of well being has proposed tripling the present tremendous to $3,800 so as to curb fetal gender choice.Vietnam is not the one nation to finish it is two-child policy. China additionally ended its longstanding one-child policy, which started in 1979. The policy was first relaxed to enable a second baby and later a 3rd baby in 2021. However, these adjustments made little success in boosting birth rates.