Photo: Steffen Schmitz (more photos) · CC BY SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Vietnam
Vietnamese · VND · Indochina Time
How it scores for living there
- 29%Cost of livingRated 5 of 5 for living there, ideal
- 35%Income taxRated 2 of 5 for living there, poor
- AppliesCapital gainsRated 3 of 5 for living there, workable
- 23MbpsInternetRated 3 of 5 for living there, workable
- 1.11Doctors /1,000Rated 2 of 5 for living there, poor
- 25PM2.5 ug/m3Rated 2 of 5 for living there, poor
- 1.5Homicide /100kRated 4 of 5 for living there, good
- 74.7Life expectancyRated 3 of 5 for living there, workable
- 84%People onlineRated 3 of 5 for living there, workable
- 40Corruption indexRated 2 of 5 for living there, poor
- 9of 12Mild monthsRated 4 of 5 for living there, good
Facts, not judgements
- UTC+7Time zone
- VNDCurrency
- VietnameseLanguage
- A, B, C, FPower plug
- 18.0mVisitors in 2019
Colour says whether a figure is good for someone moving in, not whether it is high: cheap is green and expensive is red. Every coloured box carries the reason for its colour, the bar under it repeats the score as a width, and boxes with no data are not drawn.
Nomads in Vietnam
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Who can help you in Vietnam
Vetted partners for the move: immigration and tax lawyers, relocation services, banking and eSIM, guides and local experts. One Gold partner and up to three standard listings per country.
Climate and cost by city
Average monthly temperature and rainfall from Open-Meteo ERA5 (2019-2023 mean, CC BY 4.0). Sea surface temperature from Open-Meteo Marine. Price level from the World Bank ICP survey, same-year pairing, omitted where the survey does not cover the country.
Cost of living and lifestyle
Day to day, Vietnam costs about 29% of the US level, on a World Bank income of $18k per person (PPP, 2025).
That percentage is measured against your country, not against ours. It follows the country picker in the header, or your account if you are signed in. With neither, it falls back to the United States, which is the 100 of the World Bank index, and the sentence says so.
World Bank ICP price level (US=100) and GNI per capita PPP, CC BY 4.0. It is a national average: a capital runs above it and a small town below it.
Getting to Vietnam
Its main airport has non-stop service to 47 airports in the OpenFlights route database.
| From | Routing | Flight time | Cheapest fare |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dubai | Non-stop | 7h 25m | €716 |
| Sydney | Non-stop | 8h 50m | €269 |
| Frankfurt | Non-stop | 11h 50m | €876 |
| Paris | Non-stop | 11h 55m | €920 |
| London | Non-stop | 12h 10m | €768 |
| Los Angeles | Non-stop | 20h 45m | €348 |
Airports and non-stop routes from OpenFlights (Open Database License). Fares and flight times are cached one-way economy prices from Travelpayouts, the cheapest seen recently rather than a live quote or an average. They move; treat them as an order of magnitude.
What to see in Vietnam
Ordered by how many people looked each place up over the last twelve months, so the list is measured interest and not our taste.
river
Mekong River
17,812 readers a month look it up
UNESCObay
Ha Long Bay
12,619 readers a month look it up
cave
Son Doong Cave
11,925 readers a month look it up
footbridge
Golden Bridge
9,308 readers a month look it up
monument
Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum
8,914 readers a month look it up
bay
Gulf of Thailand
6,447 readers a month look it up
UNESCOWorld Heritage Site
Hội An
5,913 readers a month look it up
presidential palace
Independence Palace
5,218 readers a month look it up
Photo credits
- Mekong River: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Ha Long Bay: Thierry Boriecolour adjusted by Lycaon, PUBLIC DOMAIN, via Wikimedia Commons
- Son Doong Cave: Doug Knuth from Woodstock, IL, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Golden Bridge: . Ray in Manila, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum: NKSTTSSHNVN, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Gulf of Thailand: Reto Stöckli, NASA Earth Observatory, PUBLIC DOMAIN, via Wikimedia Commons
- Hội An: Steffen Schmitz (more photos), CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Independence Palace: Balon Greyjoy, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
The practical basics
- Local time…Indochina Time, Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh
- CurrencyVNDISO 4217
- LanguagesVietnamese
- PlugsA, B, C, F220/380 V 50 Hz
- Safe tap water59%of people on a safely managed supply, World Bank 2024
- UK travel adviceNo blanket warningFCDO, reviewed 2026-06-26
- Population101.6mWorld Bank
Currency codes ISO 4217; plugs and voltage from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); time zone and flag from the countries-states-cities database (ODbL 1.0); travel advice from the UK FCDO (Open Government Licence v3).
How many people visit
Vietnam logged 3.8 million international arrivals in 2020, the last year the World Bank series covers. That is a pandemic year and it is not what a normal year looks like: in 2019 the same series counted 18.0 million.
World Bank indicator ST.INT.ARVL, international tourism arrivals, CC BY 4.0. Arrivals count trips, not people: the same visitor twice in a year counts twice.
Tax in Vietnam, in one line
Personal income tax runs up to 35 per cent. Capital gains: Securities transfer: 0.1% of gross sale proceeds (deemed). Real estate transfer: 2% of transfer price. Capital/share transfer in non-public companies: 20% on net gain.
Tax figures are compiled by us and are being re-verified against primary sources. General information, not tax advice.
Data: World Bank, Open-Meteo, M-Lab, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons, under open licences. General information, not tax or legal advice.