Socioeconomic factors associated with the fertility level in Vietnam were investigated using the data of 44 provinces derived from the 1989 census. According to simple correlation analysis, variables that significantly correlated with the total fertility rate (TFR) at a 5% risk level, were the proportion married among women of reproducitive age (r=0.634), the literacy rate among women of reproductive age (r=-0.796), the proportion of the urban population (r=-0.394), the proportion of women of reproductive age in the labor force (r=0.349), the population engaged in primary industries (r=0.547), the infant and early childhood mortality rate (r=0.679), the percentage of communes with communal health stations (r=-0.571), the average age at the first marriage of women (r=-0.743) and the sex ratio (male/female)(r=0.399).
In multiple regression analysis (stepwise method), four variables were included in the equation as factors with statistical significance. While the literacy rate among women of reproductive age showed a negative relation with TFR (ß =-0.499), the infant and early childhood mortality rate (ß =0.338), the proportion married among women of reproductive age (ß =0.283), and the total migration rate (ß =0.174) showed a positive relation with TFR. These four variables explained 80.0% of the total variance in the observed TFR. These results suggest that the replacement or hoarding theory is applicable to Vietnamese reproductive behavior.