Ho Chi Minh City pays women $190 for having second child as officials declare birth-rate red alert

Confront a ferrility rate that has sunk to the lowest

Nearly 9,000 women in Ho Chi Minh City have received a cash bonus of VND3-5 million (US$114-190) for giving birth to two children before age 35, as Vietnam's largest megacity confronts a fertility rate that has sunk to the lowest in the country.

HCMC Population department

Pham Chanh Trung, head of the Ho Chi Minh City Population Department, said at a public health campaign launch on April 17 that the city has now transferred VND5 million to each of 1,310 mothers who had a second child between Sept. 1, 2025 and the present.

Administrative merger

The policy applies across the newly expanded metropolis, which absorbed the former provinces of Binh Duong and Ba Ria-Vung Tau in last year's administrative merger to form a single city of 14 million.

Pre-merger city

A separate group of 7,650 women received VND3 million each for second births between Dec. 21, 2024 and Aug. 31, 2025, under an earlier resolution that applied only to the pre-merger city.

cash incentives, reverse collapsing birth rates

governments are spending billions on cash incentives to reverse collapsing birth rates. South Korea pays parents a 2 million won ($1,500) "First Encounter Voucher" at a first birth and 3 million won ($2,200) at a second, on top of monthly cash allowances that run for years.

cash incentives, reverse collapsing birth rates

governments are spending billions on cash incentives to reverse collapsing birth rates. South Korea pays parents a 2 million won ($1,500) "First Encounter Voucher" at a first birth and 3 million won ($2,200) at a second, on top of monthly cash allowances that run for years.

labor force, accelerate population aging

Birth rates falling too low directly threaten the city's future labor force, accelerate population aging, and create enormous challenges for sustainable development," said Huynh Minh Chin, deputy director of the HCMC Department of Health, who called the figure a red alert.

stand at

Ho Chi Minh City's total fertility rate, meaning the average number of children a woman will bear in her lifetime, stood at 1.51 in 2025.

reorient

/ˌriːˈɔː.ri.ent/ (UK reorientate, re-orientate)

to change the aim or purpose of something so that it is directed at a different person or thing

—> Both payments sit ahead of Vietnam's new Population Law, passed which formally scraps the country's decades-old two-child limit and reorients policy from birth control to birth encouragement.

sit ahead of new law

Both payments sit ahead of Vietnam's new Population Law, passed by the National Assembly last December and taking effect July 1, 2026, which formally scraps the country's decades-old two-child limit and reorients policy from birth control to birth encouragement.

Deploy

to use something or someone, especially in an effective way:

—> Alongside the cash, HCMC is deploying mobile health teams across 168 wards and communes from April 15 through May 30 to provide premarital checkups, prenatal screening, and elderly medical record-keeping.

premarital

/ˌpriːˈmær.ɪ.təl/ before marriage >< postnuptial /ˌpəʊstˈnʌp.ʃəl/

Alongside the cash, HCMC is deploying mobile health teams across 168 wards and communes from April 15 through May 30 to provide premarital checkups, prenatal screening, and elderly medical record-keeping.

—> prenatal /ˌpriːˈneɪ.t̬əl/ : relating to the medical care given to pregnant women before theirbabies are born >< postpartum /ˌpoʊstˈpɑːr.t̬əm/

relating to the period of time after a baby has been born

geriatric care

/ˌdʒer.iˈæt.rɪk/ for or relating to old people:

—> The goal is to bring basic reproductive and ____ care directly to pregnant women and disadvantaged households, who would otherwise have to travel to upper-tier hospitals.

cite the same recurring pressures

Young couples cite the same recurring pressures: the cost of education, rising housing prices, and workplaces that still penalize parents,

produce a bump in births

But a substantial body of demographic studies finds that one-off baby bonuses generally produce only a short-term bump in births rather than a sustained reversal.