Poverty And Inequality in Vietnam: Spatial Patterns And Geographic Determinants

This report uses a relatively new method called small area estimation or poverty mapping to estimate measures of poverty and inequality for provinces, districts, and communes in Vietnam. This analysis reveals that poverty rates are highest in the remote uplands areas. However, because these areas are sparsely populated, most of the poor live in the Red and Mekong river deltas. The study also finds that geographic factors-including agro-climatic variables and market access-are good predictors of poverty, explaining about 75 percent of the variation in district-level rural poverty. Because many anti-poverty programs are geographically focused, this research can help improve the design of anti-poverty programs by providing more precise estimates of poverty at the district and commune levels.