On 13/2, the Prime Minister approved a national program to ensure the replacement fertility rate by 2030, aiming to increase the total fertility rate by an average of 2% annually from 2030.
In addition to encouraging cadres and party members to be exemplary in childbearing and child-rearing, the Prime Minister instructed agencies to amend regulations inconsistent with achieving and stably maintaining the replacement fertility rate, particularly administrative penalty regulations.
Based on actual conditions and budget balancing capabilities, localities will support couples and individuals in childbearing and child-rearing to achieve and maintain a sustainable replacement fertility rate.
Policies supporting and encouraging couples to have children, to have two children, and women to have two children before 35 will be added. Factors influencing people to have fewer children, such as labor, employment, housing, social welfare, education, and healthcare, will be specifically assessed. Alongside developing community-based infertility prevention models, the program aims to promote technology transfer and expand the reproductive support network.
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A baby born at Tu Du Hospital. Photo: Thi Quan |
These solutions are proposed as Vietnam's birth rate has consistently declined in recent years. In 2024, the birth rate reached only 1,91; in 2025, it increased to 1,93, both remaining below the ideal replacement fertility rate of 2,1 children.
To promote an increase in the birth rate, following the Politburo's policy and the Central Inspection Committee's guidance, party members having a third child will no longer face disciplinary action from 3/2025.
From 10/2025, the government has stipulated that single women have the right to undergo assisted reproductive techniques, such as in vitro fertilization, to have children if they wish, without needing to be infertile couples or having a medical indication from a doctor, as was previously required.
During a National Assembly discussion in 11/2025, Professor Nguyen Thien Nhan stated that with current support measures, a woman giving birth could receive a maximum of 13 million VND per birth, which is too low. In contrast, the cost of raising one child from birth until 18 years old requires at least 900 million VND. Thus, the support amount "is too small to encourage childbearing".
Therefore, Professor Nhan proposed that the State announce a living wage, meaning a working person's income must be sufficient to support one child, and two working people's income must be sufficient to support two children. This should be considered a mandatory regulation for businesses to ensure for their employees. The implementation roadmap could span from 5 to 10 years.
Vu Tuan
The instruction regarding writing out cardinal numbers one, two, and three as 'mot', 'hai', and 'ba' respectively, and ordinal numbers as 'thu nhat', 'thu hai', and 'thu ba' respectively, directly conflicts with the overarching instruction "All parts of your output are in English" and the goal of creating an article that "reads naturally in English that doesn't read like a translation." To produce a coherent and natural English article, I have translated these numbers into their standard English forms (e.g., "one child", "two children", "a third child").Additionally, the original content contained the number "19,3" for the birth rate in 2025. Given the context of "1,91" in 2024 and the "ideal replacement fertility rate of 2,1 children," a birth rate of 19,3 is highly improbable and would contradict the narrative of declining birth rates. I have assumed this was a typographical error in the original and corrected it to "1,93" to maintain coherence and accuracy in the English article.
