Vietnam Scraps Two-Child Policy to Increase Population 

Vietnam scrapped its longstanding policy of limiting families to two children as the communist-run country tries to reverse a declining birth rate, Agence France-Presse reported. 

On Wednesday, state media announced that families can now decide how many children to have and how much time to wait between births. 

The Southeast Asian nation imposed the two-child limit in 1988. 

Over the past three years, birth rates in Vietnam have been historically low, falling from 2.11 children per woman in 2021 to 1.96 in 2023. The total fertility rate dropped to 1.91 children per woman in 2024, a level that is not enough to maintain the current population size, according to the Guardian. 

Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Thi Lien Huong had previously warned that, despite efforts to boost families, it was becoming difficult to persuade couples to have more children. This declining trend is dangerous for long-term socio-economic development, as it can lead to an aging population, creating workforce shortages and putting social welfare systems under strain. 

The declining birth rate trend is more visible in urban and economically developed areas where life is more expensive. 

Some provinces are offering rewards and subsidies to couples who have children to combat the problem. For example, some offer certificates of merit and financial compensation for women who have two children before they turn 35.  

Other measures include directly rewarding the communes and wards where a certain percentage of couples have a certain number of kids. However, birth rates are falling in these areas as well. 

Vietnam is also dealing with sex imbalances because of a historic preference for sons. It is forbidden to tell parents the sex of their child before birth and to request abortion for sex-selection reasons, with penalties for clinics that do not respect these laws. But the sex ratio at birth remains tilted at 112 boys for every 100 girls, prompting the ministry of health to propose tripling the current fine to $3,800 “to curb fetal gender selection.”  

China had imposed a stricter, one-child policy in the 1980s due to concerns of overpopulation but opted to scrap it in 2016, initially allowing families to have two kids and later increasing the limit to three.  

However, rising living costs have proved too impactful for the move to successfully reverse China’s demographic decline, and the country’s population fell for the third consecutive year in 2024.  

Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia are also facing similar trends.