Hanoi vs Ho Chi Minh City for couples
Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are both in Vietnam, about 1,137 km apart. Every figure below comes from the data behind our city pages: an estimated monthly cost for a couple, tax tier, annual climate, safety, healthcare, internet speed, language and residency rules.
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Side by side
Source: the datasets behind our city pages. Cost is our model estimate (a country-level cost index scaled for city size); tax tiers are assigned by hand from each country's top marginal income tax rate and overall tax reputation; temperature from the Open-Meteo archive (2019 to 2023 averages); rainfall from TerraClimate (1991 to 2020 normals); safety and healthcare are our own country-level estimates; internet from the Ookla Speedtest Global Index; English from the EF English Proficiency Index; residency from our hand-reviewed residency dataset (not legal advice); short-stay entry from the passport-index dataset.
Factor by factor
Cost of living
Close on cost: we estimate about €2,432 a month for a couple living centrally in Hanoi and €2,475 in Ho Chi Minh City.
Taxes
Same country, same tax: Vietnam is in our low to medium tax tier.
Climate
Ho Chi Minh City is 4°C warmer on average over the year: 28°C against 24°C in Hanoi. Hanoi is drier, with about 1,530 mm of rain a year against 1,846 mm in Ho Chi Minh City (17% less).
Safety
Our safety score is country-level, so both cities get the same 62 out of 100.
Healthcare
Our healthcare score is country-level, so both cities get the same 60 out of 100.
Internet
Our broadband figure is country-level: about 130 Mbps median fixed download in both.
Language
Main languages in both: Vietnamese. English proficiency is rated the same in both: limited English.
Residency and visas
Same country, same rules: long-term residency in Vietnam is rated possible, with conditions.
Which one fits a couple
As two cities in Vietnam, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City share every country-level figure, and no factor we score puts either clearly ahead. What sets them apart: Ho Chi Minh City is 4°C warmer on average (28°C against 24°C); Ho Chi Minh City is wetter, with 1,846 mm of rain a year against 1,530 mm; Ho Chi Minh City has more people in the city proper, though both are major (over 5 million people); Hanoi is near the coast and Ho Chi Minh City coastal. They are 1,137 km apart.
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