Vietnamese say no to more kids after two child limit scrapped

HANOI - After Vietnam removed its two-child limit, pharmacy worker Nguyen Thi Nguyet Nga says she still has no plans to have more children, as she barely has time to see her daughters, or the money to provide them with a good life.

The country’s communist government on June 4 lifted a longstanding ban on families having more than two children, as it battles to reverse a declining birth rate and ease the burden of an ageing population.

But rising living costs and changing societal values mean the adjusted law may not bring the baby boom the government hopes for.

Introduced in 1988, the law has been loosely enforced in recent years, and despite its abolishment, 31-year-old Ms Nga said she worries about the costs of having a third child.

It would mean seeing her two girls – aged seven and 12 – even less than she does, or skimping on their education, she told AFP.

“My parents-in-law really want us to have a boy... however, I will definitely not have more kids,” Ms Nga said.

She earns around US$300 (S$385) a month working in a pharmacy in the main town of northern Tuyen Quang province, while her children live with their grandparents 40km away.

“I don’t earn enough for the two girls to have a good life. I don’t have a chance to live with them every day,” she said.

“Mostly we talk on video chat and see them only once or twice a month, so why would I have another child?”

Vietnam has experienced historically low birth rates in the last three years, with the total fertility rate dropping to 1.91 children per woman in 2024, below the replacement level.

Although the trend is most pronounced in major cities like capital Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City,