Urbanization has hurt the poor in Ho Chi Minh City, the first-ever survey on incomes has found, while workers’ minimum and maximum wages differ by a factor of almost seven. Nguyen Quang Vinh, a senior researcher at the HCM City Institute for Development Studies (HIDS), said the creep of urbanization has forced the poor to the outskirts and less developed areas.
“Many poor have become migrants in their own city,” he told a conference that was held Wednesday to announce the start of another research project, this one on the urban poor, by the institute, the city’s Statistics Agency, and the United Nations Development Program.
According to government statistics, around 80,000 people in HCMC live under the poverty line, which is set at VND12 million ($650). The survey, done by HIDS researcher Le Van Thanh of 720 workers in 12 districts, found the city’s average per capita income has risen to $2,500. Nearly 48% of its residents have stable jobs and 4.5% were unemployed. Around 24% of the respondents were satisfied with their earnings; their families spend more than half of their income on food and a fifth on education. Families have an average of 4.6 members while the proportion of the population that is of working age at 69.7%.
“HCMC’s population is growing older,” the report concluded.
Nearly half of the city’s residents have lived there for more than 25 years while the rate of migration to the city is constantly rising.
