Global Spotlight: Vietnam

Vietnam’s rapid economic growth (nearly 7 percent last year), youth (nearly half its population of 95 million is 25 years old or younger) and wealth (one third of Vietnamese are expected to join the middle class by 2020) have highlighted it as a nation to watch—particularly among international educators with enrollment needs.

By the Numbers:

• 400,000: Estimate of the number of Vietnamese students studying abroad, worldwide, in the next decade.
• 33 million: Number of middle-class and affluent Vietnamese projected by 2020—more than double the number in 2014.
• 410%: Percentage by which the number of Vietnamese students studying in the United States increased between 2004–05 and 2014–15.
• 1: Rank of Vietnam among the world’s fastest-growing populations of ultra-rich people—those whose net worth exceeds U.S. $30 million.
• 6%: Growth in the number of Vietnamese students studying in the United States from May 2016 to May 2017.
• 90%: Percentage of outbound students from Vietnam who are self-funded.