ISTANBUL

Vietnam has ended a two-child policy, aiming to meet population challenges as the Southeast Asian country has seen a decline in fertility rate.

The lawmakers of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly approved the changes to the population law on Tuesday, the daily Hanoi Times reported.

Health Minister Dao Hong Lan said: “The updated law empowers couples to freely decide the timing, number, and spacing of their children, considering their age, health, education, work, income, and capacity to raise children—all based on the principle of equality.”

“This reform aims to tackle growing disparities in birth rates across regions and social groups, and to prevent population decline below the replacement level, a trend that threatens Vietnam’s sustainable economic and social development, as well as its national security and defense in the long term,” said the minister.

The Southeast Asian nation, home to just over 100 million people, had limited couples to having only one or two children.

Lawmakers met Tuesday for the 46th session of the Standing Committee when they approved amendments to Article 10 of the Population Ordinance first issued in 2003 and revised in 2008.

The fertility rate has dropped sharply, from 1.96 in 2023 to 1.91 in 2024—the lowest level in the country’s history.