Poverty in Vietnam

Until the 1990s, most of the Vietnamese population lived under the poverty line.^[1] This was due to a number of reasons, which was a result from years as a French colony,^[2] the Japanese occupation of Vietnam,^[3] the Vietnam-American War,^[4] and further conflicts within Mainland Southeast Asia (primarily the Cambodian-Vietnamese war^[5][6] and the Sino-Vietnamese War^[7]). Continuous conflicts from 1887 to 1991, more than 100 years of instability had left Vietnam a war-torn^[8][9][10] country that was prone severe floods from typhoons, rising sea levels, as well as the so-called "flood season" from seasonal monsoons (East Asian monsoon in winter and South Asian monsoon in summer), as well as the effects of climate change.^[11][12][13]

Political and economic reform that started in 1986, which was a set of policies for market liberalisation labelled Đổi Mới (Renovation/Innovation), the status of poverty and hunger in Vietnam has been significantly improved - from one of the poorest countries in the world with per capita income below US$100 per year, by the end of 2013 Viet Nam became a middle income country with per capita income of US$1,910 (in 2013).^[14] The poverty rate decreased from 58 percent in 1993 to 28.9 percent in 2002, 14.5 percent in 2008, to about 12 percent in 2011. About 28 million people are estimated to have been lifted out of poverty over two decades.^[1] The 2014 Global Hunger Index (GHI) Report ranked Vietnam 15th amongst 81 nations suffering from hunger, with a GHI of 7.5 compared with an alarming 27.7 in 1990 (country with extremely alarming (GHI ≥ 30), alarming (GHI between 20.0 and 29.9) or serious (GHI between 10.0 and 19.9) hunger situation.^[15] Achievements in poverty reduction and hunger eradication have been highly appreciated and successful in furthering economic development. However, Vietnam still has many tasks ahead in fighting against poverty and hunger at large as well as for more vulnerable groups of people such as ethnic minorities, disabled people, caring for the elderly, and those vulnerable to crime.^{[16][17][18][19]}

In terms of education, besides primary school and secondary school which most Vietnamese complete, high school completion rates in early 2021 in the second year of the coronavirus pandemic was only an abysmal 58%, which was nevertheless, was up from just 55% in 2013.^[20] From 1990 to 2016, Viet Nam's gross enrolment ratio in tertiary education grew from only 2.7% to 28.3%. Nevertheless, the ratio remains well below that of other countries in the region.^[21] Specific regions of Vietnam where there are heavy imbalances of education attainment and wealth dragged the average down.^[20]

Based on a report from the Asian Development Bank, Vietnam has a total population of 91.70 million as of 2015, about one million people more compared to the previous year.^[22] In 2016, 5.8% of the population lived below the national poverty line; in 2019, the unemployment rate was 2.0%.^[23] The percentage of people living in slums dropped from 60.5% in 1992 to 13.8% living in slums by 2018.^[24]

Furthermore, the climate of Vietnam is heavily prone to floods from a number of sources: typhoons; seasonal monsoons, with the South Asian monsoon in the summer, and the East Asian monsoon in the winter; and rising sea levels as a consequence of climate change.^[25][26] Although the 21st Century for Vietnam so far has been remained relatively conflict-free military wise, challenges remain nonetheless.