Ho Chi Minh City’s average male-to-female sex ratio at birth in the first six months of 2019 remained at a high level, with 109.9 boys per 100 girls, but the difference is smaller compared to the same period last year.

The information was released by Tran Van Tri, head of the municipal Population – Family Planning Department, at a meeting on July 10 to respond to the World Population Day (July 11).

According to Tri, since the beginning of 2018, the city’s population sector has gained positive achievements, with the infant mortality rate at 0.77 percent, and over 87 percent of pregnant women and 82 percent of new-borns taking screening tests.

At present, the city is home to 8.8 million people, and the working age population structure has risen from 64.5 percent to nearly 71 percent over the past decade.

However, the city is facing a lot of challenges, including growing population size, high population density and gender imbalance at a serious level. Unorganised migration and the lack of synchronous measures to bring into full play the golden population structure and adapt to population aging are worsening, Tri stated.

To improve the population quality, Deputy Director of the municipal Health Department Nguyen Huu Hung asked the population sector to coordinate with health facilities in providing services related to population and development, and expand prenatal and postnatal screening services in order to early detect congenital malformations, as well as productive health care services.