1. Family & Welfare
in Vietnam
By Van Tran

2. Table of content
• Introduction about Vietnamese family
• Demographic trends in family life
• Forms of support
• Reference

3. Introduction
• Marriage plays an important role in creating
families in Vietnam
• Most Vietnamese families are nuclear families.
• Newly-wed couples tend to live with the groom’s
parents after weddings.
• In the North, parents live with their oldest son
whereas in the South, they usually live with their
youngest son.

4. In traditional agricultural society, a big number of
offspring is a symbol of a happy family, having
many children means lots of fortune. As a result, in
the early last century, when analyzing Vietnam’s
traditional society, Gourou wrote: “…it is certain
that Vietnamese women give birth to as many
children as they can. Getting married early, often
before 20, they continuously give birth until
menopause period” (Gourou, 2003:175)

5. DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS IN
FAMILY LIFE

6. 5.22
4.84
4.61
3.8 3.7
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
1979 1989 1999 2009 2013
Household size (person)
Household size (person)
Figure 1 – Household size from 1979 to 2013

7. • Family size tends to shrink due to
several reasons:
- Birth control campaign was successful,
- People’s demand about the number of
children has changed (See Table 1)
- The decline of fertility rate (See Figure 2)
- The transformation in the model of
generations living together

8. Table 1 - Couples’ expected number of children (person)
Researched regions Expected number of children
All the regions 2.48
Urban 2.3
Plain 2.53
Midlands-Mountains 2.48

9. Figure 2 – Total fertility rate (children per woman)

10. Figure 3 – Single households
7.00%
7.10%
7.20%
7.30%
7.40%
7.50%
7.60%
7.70%
7.80%
2011 2012 2013
7.30%
7.50%
7.80%
Single households
• Single households tend to increase

11. Divorce cases from 2000 - 2003
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
60,000
70,000
2000 2001 2002 2003 2005
51,361
54,226 56,478
41,326
65,929
Divorce cases

12. Life expectancy
• From 1999 – 2013, increase from age 71
to age 76
• Life expectancy at birth:
- total population: 72.91 years
- male: 70.44 years
- female: 75.65 years (2014 est.)

13. Forms of support
• Housing support
• Electricity bill support
• Cash allowance to maternity women of minority
group
• Loans to students, employees, families
• Vocational training
• Employment
• Non-monetary support

14. Reference
• General Statistics Office
• The trend of Vietnamese household size in recent years
(Nguyen Thanh Binh, 2011)
• Vietnam Analysis of Social Protection (Florence Bonnet,
Michael Cichon, Carlos Galian, Gintare Mazelkaite and
Valérie Schmitt, 2012)
• Vietnam Government Decrees
• http://thuvienphapluat.vn/
• THE 1/4/2013 TIME-POINT POPULATION CHANGE
AND FAMILY PLANNING SURVEY: MAJOR FINDING