Getting married at an older age, being 'afraid' of giving birth and expecting to have only one child are alarming facts in Vietnam, especially when the country’s aging is four times faster than that of other countries.

Vietnam will enter the “elderly population structure” in 2026, which will last for 28 years until 2054, according to an in-depth study of the 2019 population and housing census.

Twenty percent of Vietnam’s population will be 60 years of age or older within the next 20 years, resulting in the country experiencing an “elderly population crisis”.

Vietnam faces a significantly imbalanced sex ratio at birth (SRB) that will mean by 2034, about 1.5 million men will not be able to marry wives, a study by the General Statistics Office and the United Nations Population Fund has found.

It takes Vietnam only 20 years to transform from 7% to 14% of the population aged 65 and over.

Vietnam entered an “aging phase” in 2011 and remains among the most rapidly aging countries in the world and, as such, might become a super-aging country by 2050, stated Deputy Minister of Health Truong Quoc Cuong.

Vietnam currently has 33 provinces with high birth rates, including many economically developed localities.

Vietnam had a total population of over 96.2 million people as of April 1, 2019, with males accounting for 49.8 percent and females 50.2 percent, according to the population and housing census 2019.

Vietnam is one of the countries with the fastest population ageing in Asia with the transition period from the population ageing period to the aged population period is about 17-20 years, an official has said.

Over the recent past, population work in Vietnam has achieved important results, said Nguyen Doan Tu, Director General of the General Department of Population and Family Planning.

Elderly Vietnamese to account for a quarter of the population by 2049, according to General Office for Population and Family Planning.