Marry by 30, two children by 35: Vietnam’s plan for young people to boost its economy
- Vietnam is hoping to address a fertility rate that has been falling since the 1980s
- It is hoping to prevent the economic problems associated with ageing populations
Media professional To Chau, 34, has been thinking about having children with her husband since they bought a home in Saigon two years ago. But she still feels unprepared, “mentally or otherwise”.
A government policy introduced last month, aimed at reversing declining fertility rates by encouraging young Vietnamese to marry by 30 and start having families by 35, has done little to change her mind.
“I find the policy for now seems to be focused on helping and not punishing; it’s not like you will be penalised if you don’t meet the quota of kids,” she said.
The country’s birth rate, since it introduced the market-oriented doi moi reforms in the 1980s, has fallen from four children per woman in 1986 to 2.09 today according to the World Bank – just under the rate of 2.1 that is needed to maintain a steady population without resorting to immigration. A contributing factor in this fall, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), has been a government policy implemented in the early 1960s that encouraged couples to have no more than two children.
Presently, the birth rate differs greatly across the country. In urban areas the rate is 1.83 children per woman, whereas in rural areas the rate is 2.26. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s largest city and economic hub, has a rate of just 1.39, the lowest in the country. Education, in particular, is a factor: women with university degrees have an average of 1.85 children each compared with 2.59 for those who have no formal schooling, according to the 2019 Population and Housing Census.