Pham Chanh Trung, deputy director of the city Bureau of Population and Family Planning, speaking at a meeting on Thursday, said rough calculations show the average fertility rate was 1.53 children per woman, up from 1.39 in 2019.

While saying his department would need time to collect more data to provide full and accurate statistics, he was hopeful the increase was thanks to the city's propaganda exhorting families to have "two children."

"The fertility rate is still very low. We have a long way to go before reaching an average rate of 2-2.1 children per woman."

The department had earlier proposed targets to the People's Committee and the Department of Health of 1.4 children per woman by 2025 and 1.6 by 2030.

To deal with its alarmingly low fertility rate, the city plans to offer counselling on having two children and health checks if necessary to 90 percent of men and women preparing to get married by 2025.

It also targets having 85 percent of pregnant women screened for at least four of the most common congenital diseases and newborns for at least five.

Huynh Thi Trong, president of the HCMC Family Planning Association, said 10 percent of couples in the city have infertility problems, an alarmingly high rate and one of the main causes of the low fertility rate.

But this group wants to have kids and even several of them, and so the association and the sub-department plan to provide them with support, counseling and infertility treatment.