Human Development &
Capability Association

Vietnam has achieved a relatively high economic growth rate during the last three decades. However, the growth is accompanied with many socio-economic issues that hinder improvement in the quality of life of the households. This paper aims at tabulating a practical well-being index to measure changes in the level of well-being of households in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the two biggest cities in Vietnam. The index was established based on the Theory of Human Needs and the available data about living standards of households in the cities during the 2002-2008 period. It concerns aspects of households’ life such as demography, social status, education, health, work, financial status, living accommodations, and consumption. The study showed that the aggregate level of well-being of households in the cities has increased during the period but the trends of the indexes were diverse and unstable. Though increasing is the common trend, there are very few indexes having a continuous increasing trend. Most indexes have increasing trend with down turn(s) in specific year(s) whereas some of them have decreasing trends. Further improvements to increase the quality of databases and the quality of well-being index are necessary.

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