In the impact assessment report of the Population Law project that is being consulted, the Ministry of Health said the bill aims to firmly maintain the replacement fertility rate (2.1 children/woman) nationwide.
The bill will not prescribe the number of children for each couple but will give each family the right to decide, along with the responsibility to care for and raise their children well.
Accordingly, couples and individuals are voluntary, equal and responsible in having children, the time of giving birth, the number of children and the interval between births in accordance with the age, health status, learning conditions, labor, work, income and child-rearing of the couple and individual.
At the same time, couples and individuals need to ensure their responsibility to care for, raise and educate their children well; and build a prosperous, equal, progressive, happy and civilized family.
This is a fundamental change compared to the Population Ordinance - the most important current legal document on population, which stipulates that each couple or individual "gives birth to one or two children, except in special cases prescribed by the Government".
The Ministry of Health believes that giving parents the right to decide on the number of children will avoid the situation where the birth rate drops too low, causing population aging, negatively affecting economic and social development, and ensuring national defense and security.
Besides, it is still necessary to have regulations on measures to firmly maintain the replacement fertility rate nationwide through adjusting the fertility rate to suit each region, subject, and economic and social development conditions of the whole country, each province and city.
According to statistics, the national birth rate is decreasing and there is a significant difference between regions and groups. Economically and socially disadvantaged areas have high - very high birth rates, while in urban areas the birth rate is low, in some places much lower than the replacement rate.
The trend of having few children, being lazy to have children, getting married late, and having only one child is spreading. Of these, 9 provinces and cities have reached the replacement level of fertility; 33 provinces and cities have high fertility and 21 provinces and cities have low fertility. Currently, only the Northern midland and mountainous region and the North Central region have high fertility.
The Southeast and Mekong Delta are two alarming regions with a continuing decline in fertility rates, around 1.5 children per woman. Ho Chi Minh City is the locality with the lowest replacement fertility rate in the country today.
Specifically, the average number of children of a woman of reproductive age in Ho Chi Minh City in 2023 is 1.32 children/woman.
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