Dr Pham Vu Hoang, deputy general director of the ministry's Population and Family Planning department, said at a Monday meeting that the 100 millionth citizen was likely to be born around April next year.

A newborn baby at Tu Du Hospital in HCMC, January 2021.

According to the General Department of Population, about a million babies are born in Vietnam every year.

"A large population size brings many benefits but also many challenges for the country's socioeconomic development," Hoang said. Among the major challenges were family planning and healthcare for teenagers and young people, he added.

Nearly 25 million women 15 and 49 years old are of child bearing age in Vietnam now. By 2030, this number is expected to rise to 26 million, and alongside this, the need for family planning.

Even though there are a lot of problems and challenges with family planning services, particularly in areas mainly inhabited by ethnic minority communities, 67% of the people in Vietnam use modern birth control methods.

The need for adolescent and youth reproductive healthcare, sexual health, family planning and sexual safety is also a challenge for the government.

More than 14 million people in Vietnam are between the ages of 10 and 19, which is 14.4% of the total population. In this group, 48.3% are females and the 15-19 age group comprises 6.6 million people, or 6.8% of the total population, Hoang said.

"Adolescents and young adults are a vulnerable group because they are going through a lot of physical and mental changes, learning new things, and shaping their personalities to get ready for life," he said.

The Ministry of Health has said that half of all abortions in Vietnam are done to get rid of unwanted pregnancies. This is because many women do not have access to birth control knowledge and methods.

A study of sustainable development goals for children and women in Vietnam (2020-2021) showed that women aged 25-29 have the highest abortion rate (an average of 9 per 1,000 women), followed by women aged 20-24 (7 per 1,000 women) and women aged 30-39 (6 per 1,000 women). There is one abortion for every 1,000 women 15-19 years old.

Unsafe abortions can cause many problems like bleeding (because not all of the embryo is taken out) or tear in the cervix from rough, improper manipulation. In the worst cases, bleeding can be fatal, experts have said.

The National Population Strategy for 2021-2030 says that the government wants to cut the number of unintended pregnancies among teens and young adults by two-thirds.

Vietnam's population currently stands at more than 99 million, making it the 15th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous in Asia and the third most populous in Southeast Asia.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) reported November 15 that the world population has reached 8 billion people.

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Source: VnExpress