Using the statistics from General Statistical Office,
the paper will present the findings of birth rate and the
proportion of Vietnamese women having a third child in the
period 1999 - 2009. The birth rate has substantially declined
(from 2.33 children in 1999 to 2.03 children in 2009) and
reached the sub-replacement fertility rate over the past years.
The fertility rate in rural areas decreases faster than in urban
one, however it is still higher (1.81 children in urban versus 2.14
children in rural in 2009). The Central Highlands has the
highest fertility rate in the country (2.65 children in 2009), and
Mekong River Delta has the lowest rate (1.84 children in 2009).
In recent years, the fertility rate of ethnic minorities is not a
very big difference compared with that of Kinh group, apart
from the excessively higher fertility rate of H’Mong women.
Similarly, there only exists a slight difference in the fertility rate
of different religious groups. Women’s education level has an
obvious impact on the fertility rate. The higher their education
level is, the lower the fertility rate is and vice versa. Women
with high school graduation had the lowest of fertility rate (1.64
children), whereas the highest (2.65 children) was of illiterate
women. Fertility rate is also directly proportional to the rate of
using contraceptive methods. The more couples use
contraceptive methods, the lower the fertility rate becomes. In
terms of age specific fertility rate, it can be clearly recognized
that Vietnam’s fertility model has continued transforming from
“early” fertility to “late” fertility. During the last years,
Vietnam has tried their best to encourage families to stop giving
birth to a third child. We have obtained some certain success
such as awarded by the United Nations for the fast decline of
population development rate in 1999, however there still exists
the problem of couple giving birth to a third child, especially in
some geographic regions: Northern Midlands and Mountainous
(Northeast and Northwest), and the Central Highlands, this rate
tends to increase.