This morning, the National Assembly voted to pass the Population Law. One significant new provision grants priority in purchasing, leasing, or rent-to-own social housing to individuals with two or more biological children, in accordance with housing laws.
The law defines the replacement fertility rate as an average of 2.1 children per woman of reproductive age. Population aging is defined as the stage when people aged 60 and above account for 10 percent of the total population, or when those aged 65 and above make up 7 percent.
The law designates December 26 as Vietnam Population Day and December as the National Month of Action on Population.
It also specifies several prohibited acts, including: selecting the sex of a fetus by any means; disclosing fetal sex (except when permitted by the Ministry of Health for diagnosis or treatment of sex-related diseases); forcing or coercing childbirth or non-childbirth; and human cloning.
To maintain the replacement fertility rate, the law provides several support measures, including:
- Female workers giving birth to a second child are entitled to seven months of maternity leave; male workers receive ten working days of paternity leave.
- Financial assistance for women of small ethnic minorities, women in provinces or cities with low fertility rates, and women who give birth to two children before the age of 35.
- Priority to buy, lease, or rent-to-own social housing for individuals with two or more biological children, as stipulated by housing regulations.
To address gender imbalance at birth, the law encourages communities to include principles such as “no preference for sons over daughters” and “no gender selection at birth” in their local conventions. Medical practitioners who disclose fetal sex for the purpose of abortion will face suspension.
The Government will uniformly manage national population affairs and report to the National Assembly every five years or on an ad-hoc basis. The law will take effect on July 1, 2026, and will abolish the previous provision under Article 43, Clause 1 of the Law on Protection of People’s Health that stated: “Each couple should have one or two children.”
