Publication: Living or Leaving: Life in the Mekong Delta Region of Viet Nam
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2025-12-15
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2025-12-17
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The Mekong Delta has long been one of Viet Nam’s most vital economic and agricultural hubs. Home to nearly 18 million people and the source of most of the country’s rice, fruit, and fish exports, it has played a central role in national development. Yet its economic weight has diminished as Viet Nam’s growth has shifted away from agriculture. Even so, the region made remarkable strides in reducing poverty in recent decades, buoyed by high agricultural productivity, expanding wage employment in the non-agricultural sector, and rising remittances. That momentum has now faltered. A succession of environmental shocks, both climate-driven and human induced, has eroded these gains and exposed the fragility of the Delta’s development model. This report draws heavily on the extensive body of academic and policy research that has documented the Mekong Delta’s evolving social, economic, and environmental landscape. The analysis builds on these foundational insights to understand the structural forces shaping livelihoods and mobility in the region. These findings are complemented by new and old evidence from the 2024 Life in the Mekong Survey and the Viet Nam Household and Living Standards Survey (VHLSS), which together provide a snapshot of household welfare, migration patterns, and perceptions of risk and opportunity. By integrating established research with new empirical data, the report aims to present a grounded and current account of the transitions underway in the Mekong Delta, anchored in evidence and oriented toward actionable policy recommendations.
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“World Bank. 2025. Living or Leaving: Life in the Mekong Delta Region of Viet Nam. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/44086 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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