Income in Vietnam
The median income in Vietnam is about $11 a day per person (2021 PPP dollars) — richer than 62% of everyone alive. Half of Vietnam lives on less than that.
The world's own median person — about $7.73 a day — would stand in the bottom 26% of Vietnam.
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The curve
Daily income per person, log scale, PPP dollars — the same curve the machine walks you across.
What it takes to stand where
Take-home income per person, in today's VND, at each point on the curve of Vietnam (the machine's convention: household take-home divided by the people it supports).
| Richer than… | per year, per person | per day (PPP $) |
|---|---|---|
| 10% of Vietnam | ₫15,845,033 | $5.07 |
| 25% of Vietnam | ₫24,033,197 | $7.69 |
| 50% of Vietnam | ₫35,784,149 | $11 |
| 75% of Vietnam | ₫53,285,566 | $17 |
| 90% of Vietnam | ₫78,443,854 | $25 |
| 99% of Vietnam | ₫233,143,885 | $75 |
Rounded, never inflated: the machine floors "richer than" claims.
The four levels in Vietnam
How much of Vietnam and of the world lives on each of four income levels. The cuts are the World Bank's $3.00 (international poverty line) and $8.30 (upper-middle-income line), both 2021 PPP; the top cut, $33, is the machine's own, four times the $8.30 line. The objects are what an income on each level tends to buy across the world's surveys — not a description of any one country.
| Level | per day (PPP $) | What tends to come with it, worldwide | Vietnam | World |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | under $3.00 | a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot | 3% | 13% |
| Level 2 | $3.00–$8.30 | a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance | 26% | 39% |
| Level 3 | $8.30–$33 | a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account | 66% | 32% |
| Level 4 | $33+ | a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap | 5% | 15% |
- Level 1 · under $3.00 a dayVietnam 3% · World 13%a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot
- Level 2 · $3.00–$8.30 a dayVietnam 26% · World 39%a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance
- Level 3 · $8.30–$33 a dayVietnam 66% · World 32%a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account
- Level 4 · $33+ a dayVietnam 5% · World 15%a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap
About 66% of Vietnam lives on Level 3, between $8.30 and $33 a day per person; worldwide, about 32% of people do.
The line that moved
In Vietnam, 57% lived under the $3.00 line at the 1992 survey; 1.6% at the 2022 one — a fall of 55 points in 30 years.
Share of Vietnam under $3.00 a day (2021 prices) at each national survey, World Bank PIP via Our World in Data; the faint line is the world's.
Worldwide, the share under the World Bank's $3.00-a-day line fell from about 43% in 1990 to about 10% today (Our World in Data; the latest years are the Bank's nowcast). Where the lift came, it came the unglamorous way: wages, harvests, workshops.
Who earns what in Vietnam
8 portraits, not payroll data: each stands roughly where that kind of work typically earns on the curve of Vietnam.
| the lowest 10% | the earnings of a rice farmer in the Mekong Delta — three harvests a year |
|---|---|
| 10–25% | the earnings of a street-food vendor in Hanoi — the phở has a queue by six |
| 25–45% | the earnings of a motorbike-taxi rider |
| 45–65% | the earnings of an electronics assembler — the world’s phones pass through her hands |
| 65–82% | the earnings of a schoolteacher |
| 82–93% | the earnings of a software developer in Ho Chi Minh City |
| 93–98% | the earnings of a doctor |
| the highest 2% | the earnings of an export-manufacturing owner — one of the century’s great growth stories |
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Where this comes from
The World Bank's Poverty and Inequality Platform percentile distribution for Vietnam (survey year 2022), in 2021 PPP dollars; incomes typed in today's money are deflated to 2021 prices with the national CPI and converted with the 2021 consumption-PPP factor. Snapshot fetched September 2026. Full methodology & honesty rules.
Neighbours on the curve
The countries whose median income sits nearest to Vietnam's — and a few far from it, for scale.