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Viet Nam at a Glance

A Human Development Overview

Rapid economic growth over the past two decades has resulted in a dramatic decrease in recorded poverty. The incidence of poverty, according to the international poverty line, dropped from 58 percent to 20 percent between 1993 and 2004. However, many households have risen barely above the poverty line and therefore remain vulnerable to falling back into poverty.

Growth has also been associated with an increase in inequality, particularly a widening rural-urban income gap as well as growing disparities from various forms of isolation, such as geographic, social, ethnic, and linguistic. Three regions account for more than two-thirds of Viet Nam’s poor: the Northern Uplands, Mekong Delta, and North Central Coast. Ethnic minorities, which comprise 14 percent of the population and live mainly in these remote upland areas, are disproportionately affected by poverty, representing almost 30  percent of the poor. About 90 percent of the poor live in the rural areas. Rural poverty bears most heavily in those farm households that have small landholdings, rely on informal credit with high interest rates, have limited access to markets for farm goods and lack off-farm employment. Providing -intensive off-farm employment calls for a strong promotion of the non-State business sector together with a removal of both explicit and implicit biases that favour the mostly capital-intensive SOEs.

Map of VIet NamAlthough GDP per capita is officially just over US$638, the country’s performance in terms of human development is favourable. This is reflected in the gradual increase of the human development index over the last decade, and summarizes the progress made in education, health and standard of living. Out of 177 countries around the globe, Viet Nam climbed from being 120 on the Human Development Index in 1995 to 108 in 2005. Life expectancy at birth is 71 years and the adult literacy rate is 94 percent (age 15 and above). The country nevertheless faces serious problems in education and health. School completion rates among ethnic minorities and girls remain relatively low. Malnutrition remains high, particularly among children under five, 33 percent of whom are underweight. The country also faces a number of re-emerging and new diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS together with new typical life style diseases and a rising number of traffic accidents. There is a rapidly increasing HIV-epidemic in Viet Nam, more than 100 people get infected every day, and the number of people living with HIV more than doubled between 2000 and 2005, from approximately 122,000 to 263,000.

 

BASIC FACTS ABOUT VIET NAM

I.  POPULATION

86.02 million

Population (2008)

    Urban (2008)

29.6%

    Rural (2008)

71.4%

 

Annual population growth rate (2008)

1.06%

 

Population density (persons per square kilometre) (2008)

260

 

Total area (square kilometres)

331,051

 

II. ECONOMY

 

GDP per capita (Current USD)

 

   GDP per capita (2009)

USD 1.052

   GDP per capita (2008)

USD 1.051

   GDP per capita (2007)

USD 835

   GDP per capita (2005)

USD 637

   GDP per capita (2004)

USD 553

   GDP per capita (2003)

USD 480

 

Annual average GDP growth rate (1999-2009)

7.04%

 

Sectoral share of GDP (2009)

    Agriculture

20.66%

    Industry and construction

40.24%

    Services

39.10%

 

Exchange rate (average rate 2009)

USD 1 = Dong 17,740.8

 

Inflation (2009)

7.0%

 

Public Finance (central government, % of GDP at current market prices, 2008 est.)

    Revenues

28.1%

    Expenditures

33.3%

    Deficit

5.2%

 

Foreign Debt (percent of GDP, 2008)

29.8 %

 

Balance of payments in convertible currency (2009)

 

    Exports (f.o.b.)

USD 56.60 billion

    Imports (c.i.f.)

USD 68.8 billion

    Trade Deficit

USD 12.2 billion

 

Principal exports (2009): crude oil (11.4%), garments and textiles (15.5%), sea products (6.75%), footwear (7.4%), rice (5.9%), coffee (3.6%), others (49.39%).

 

Principal imports (2009): capital equipment (17.5%), refined petroleum (11.1%), textile and cloth (11.2%), electronic components (5.34%), others (54.86%).

 

Principal export markets (2009): US 21.43%, Japan 11.44%, China 7.27%, Australia 4.43%, Germany 4.27%, others (51.16%)

 

Principal import markets (2009): China 16.42%, Singapore 9.61%, Japan 8.96%, Taiwan 8.23%, South Korea 7.72%, Thailand 6.41%, Hong Kong 4.45%, US 4.27%, others (33.93)

 

Competitiveness, (Ranking out of 131 countries, 2008)

70

 

Networked Readiness Index (Ranking out of 127 countries, 2008)

73

 

III.  SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

 

HEALTH

 

 

 

Life expectancy at birth (2009)

74.4 years 

     Men

 

72.5 years

     Women

 

76.4 years

 

 

 

Under-five mortality rate (2009)

24.4/1,000

 

 

 

Child malnutrition (percentage underweight) (2006) 

20.2%

 

 

 

Fertility rate (births per woman, 2008)

2.08

 

 

 

Maternal mortality rate (deaths per 100,000 live births, 2009)

69

 

 

 

EDUCATION

 

 

 

Adult literacy rate (2008) – total

92.5%

 

 

 

Net primary school enrolment ratio (2009)

 94% 

 

 

 

Net secondary school enrolment ratio (2009)

 62.3%

 

 

 

POVERTY

 

 

 

Poverty (percentage poor, national poverty line, 2008)

13.4%

 

 

 

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

 

 

 

HDI RANKING (2003-2010)

 

 

 

Human Development Index (Ranking out of 169 countries, 2010)

113

 

 

Human Development Index (Ranking out of 179 countries, 2008)

114

 

 

Human Development Index (Ranking out of 177 countries, 2007)

105

 

 

Human Development Index (Ranking out of 177 countries, 2006)

109

 

 

Human Development Index (Ranking out of 177 countries, 2005)

108

 

 

Human Development Index (Ranking out of 177 countries, 2004)

112

 

 

Human Development Index (Ranking out of 177 countries, 2003)

112

 

 

Gender Related Development Index (Ranking out of 157 countries, 2008)

96

 

 

Gender Inequality Index (Ranking out of 169 countries, 2008)

58

 

 

Human Poverty Index (Ranking out of 135 developing countries, 2008)

53

(Sources: Government Data, UNDP HDR, MDGR, WEF, IMF, IBRD, UNICEF, UNESCO, EIU)
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