Vietnam

Vietnam: explosive, multi-decade catch-up growth, 1985–2025

The 1986 Đổi Mới ('Renovation') reforms began Vietnam's shift from central planning to a market economy, and from the 2000s it became one of the fastest-growing manufacturing-export economies in the world. Between 1985 and 2025, Vietnam's GDP per capita grew from $239 to $5,066 (current US$), a compound annual growth rate of 7.9% — explosive, multi-decade catch-up growth. Annual GDP growth averaged 6.4% with a year-to-year standard deviation of 1.7 points, reflecting relatively stable macroeconomic conditions. Structurally, agriculture's share of the economy moved from 38.1% to 11.6% of GDP (a classic decline as the economy industrialized/modernized), while services rose from 33.1% to 42.7% of GDP, underscoring a shift toward a services-driven economy. On human development, life expectancy rose from 65.3 to 74.7 years, while tertiary school enrollment moved from 2.5% to 37.6%, while the urban population share grew from 19.2% to 38.8%.

What this growth cost: Growth was not without cost: per-capita CO2 emissions rose from 0.31 to 4.27 tonnes CO2e per person; income inequality (Gini index) widened from 35.7 to 36.1; the poverty headcount ratio fell from 57.5% to 1.6%.