Ho Chi Minh City’s birth-rate has plunged to a low of 1.48 in recent year, which will accelerate the arrival of an aging population, heard a workshop held in the southern city on December 24.

This is the lowest birth rate recorded in localities nationwide, compared to the replacement fertility rate of 2.1.

According to Doctor Tran Van Tri, deputy head of the municipal Population-Family Planning Division, late marriage is emerging while many couples opt for one-child solution that is likely to results in increasing gender selection and gender imbalance at birth.

In 2014, the ratio of boys to girls at birth is 108:100, while lower than the country’s average ratio, tilting away from the normal range of between 103 and 107 to 100.

Nguyen Tan Binh, Director of HCM City’s Health Department, said to address the issue, there is a need to boost communication activities and measures aimed at raising the population quality and to spread the message urging each family to have two children.

According to Nguyen Van Tan, deputy head of the General Department of Population and Family Planning, HCM City should pay more attention to reproductive health care for immigrants.

Since 2013, given the low birth rate, the southern economic hub has changed the message of its family planning campaign to urge each family to have two children instead of one to two in the previous period.

VNA/VNN