Faced with ageing population, Vietnam seeks to curb falling birthrate

Home Shows Focus To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Cover image: FOCUS © FRANCE 24 05:56 Issued on: 12/08/2026 - 14:53 From the show Vietnam, a country of more than 100 million people, is facing a sharp decline in its birthrate. Once known for large families, the nation's fertility rate has fallen to just 1.9 children per woman. This figure worries the government, which for decades was obsessed with controlling population growth – for more than 40 years, a two-child policy was the norm in Vietnam. But in June 2025, that restriction was officially lifted. Today, confronted with a rapidly ageing population and the prospect of labour shortages, the Vietnamese government is reversing course. It is now trying to boost births and convince its citizens to have more children. FRANCE 24's Dung Vo Trung, Mélodie Sforza and Adam Hancock report.