The information was released by Tran VanTri, head of the municipal Population – Family Planning Department, at ameeting on July 10 to respond to the World Population Day (July 11).

According to Tri, since the beginning of2018, the city’s population sector has gained positive achievements, with theinfant mortality rate at 0.77 percent, and over 87 percent of pregnant womenand 82 percent of new-borns taking screening tests.

At present, the city is home to 8.8 millionpeople, and the working age population structure has risen from 64.5 percent tonearly 71 percent over the past decade.

However, the city is facing a lot ofchallenges, including growing population size, high population density andgender imbalance at a serious level. Unorganised migration and the lack ofsynchronous measures to bring into full play the golden population structureand adapt to population aging are worsening, Tri stated.

To improve the population quality, DeputyDirector of the municipal Health Department Nguyen Huu Hung asked thepopulation sector to coordinate with health facilities in providing servicesrelated to population and development, and expand prenatal and postnatalscreening services in order to early detect congenital malformations, as wellas productive health care services.-VNA