Country guide · Vietnam
Moving to Vietnam: cost of living, salaries, taxes, visas
Fast-growing Southeast Asian economy with very low cost-of-living, emerging tech scene, and increasingly accessible long-stay visa options.
Vietnam — anchored by Ho Chi Minh City for our data, with Hanoi as the secondary hub — has emerged as one of Southeast Asia's most active relocator destinations for remote workers and small founders. Cost-of-living arbitrage is significant, and the local tech ecosystem (especially around HCMC's District 2 and District 7) is growing rapidly.
Visa structure is less developed than Thailand or Malaysia for digital nomads specifically, but employment-sponsored work permits and business-investor categories are accessible. English usage in business is moderate; Vietnamese language adds friction in everyday bureaucracy.
Data signals
What the numbers say about Vietnam
The take-home math
Take-home pay in Vietnam is shaped by a roughly 23% effective payroll deduction (income tax + social security), with VAT at 10%.
The main hub
Its primary hub, Ho Chi Minh City, carries a cost index of 36 (New York = 100).
Cost spread within the country
Across the 2 Vietnam cities we track, the cost index spans 33 (Hanoi) to 36 (Ho Chi Minh City).
Income per capita
Average income in Vietnam
Vietnam's income per capita is about $15,850 (GNI, PPP-adjusted US$), per the World Bank (2024). No comparable national wage survey is published for Vietnam, so this is an income proxy rather than an average-salary figure. Source: World Bank.
This is a country-wide figure. For what you actually need to earn in a specific city, see the salary-by-lifestyle breakdown on each city's cost-of-living page.
At a glance
Vietnam relocation profile
Vs the catalog average
Is Ho Chi Minh City cheap or expensive, relatively?
Ho Chi Minh City's cost and rent index against the mean across every city Mundevo covers.
Index base: New York = 100. Catalog average is the unweighted mean across all cities Mundevo tracks, recomputed on every build.
Mundevo coverage in Vietnam
Cost-of-living detail pages for each Vietnam city in the catalog.
| City | Cost index | Rent index | Safety | Population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ho Chi Minh City | 36 | 28 | 60 | 9,000,000 |
| Hanoi | 33 | 14 | 54 | 8,000,000 |
Tax and visa landscape
Headline tax model + entry-point visa overview for relocators.
- Effective income tax: 12.0%
- Social security (employee): 10.5%
- Total payroll deduction: 22.5%
- VAT: 10.0%
- Currency: VND
Effective rates assume a single salaried filer at country median wage. Special regimes (e.g. expat-favoring schemes) are not applied here — see the visa guide for those.
Visa categories, residency routes, and tax-regime context for relocators are detailed in the dedicated visa guide.
Vietnam visa guide →Salary bands at Ho Chi Minh City — by role
Illustrative gross-salary bands for 6 senior IC roles in Ho Chi Minh City. Derived from NYC anchor × Vietnam pay-tier multiplier. Cross-check Levels.fyi, Glassdoor before negotiating.
| Role | P25 | P50 | P75 | NYC anchor (P50) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software engineer | ₫1,812,500,000 | ₫2,250,000,000 | ₫2,875,000,000 | $180,000 |
| Product manager | ₫1,875,000,000 | ₫2,437,500,000 | ₫3,250,000,000 | $195,000 |
| UX / product designer | ₫1,237,500,000 | ₫1,631,250,000 | ₫2,193,750,000 | $145,000 |
| Marketing manager | ₫1,068,750,000 | ₫1,462,500,000 | ₫1,968,750,000 | $130,000 |
| Data scientist | ₫1,687,500,000 | ₫2,187,500,000 | ₫2,875,000,000 | $175,000 |
| Finance analyst | ₫1,375,000,000 | ₫1,937,500,000 | ₫2,750,000,000 | $155,000 |
Top relocation corridors
Closest peers by cost-of-living index — the moves most commonly considered alongside Vietnam.