Recently, at an event, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc mentioned the 2025 Sustainable Development Index ranking by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).
According to the SDSN report, Vietnam was named 61st out of 167 countries in the SDG Index 2025 – a ranking of progress towards achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Vietnam’s SDG Index score was 73.35/100, significantly higher than the regional average.
In the ASEAN bloc, Vietnam currently ranks second after Thailand. Official data shows Thailand ranked 43rd with 75.34 points, Vietnam 61st with 73.35 points, and Singapore 69th with 71.54 points.
Other large economies that trail Vietnam include Indonesia (77th with 70.22 points) and Malaysia (84th with 69.52 points).
Some ASEAN members with lower rankings are the Philippines (87th with 68.34 points), Brunei (92nd with 67.97 points), Cambodia (101st with 66.38 points), Myanmar (116th with 63.56 points), and Laos (121st with 62.5 points).
Thus, Vietnam is eight ranks ahead of Singapore and a significant 60 ranks ahead of Laos in the 2025 rankings.
The SDG Index is a comprehensive measure that scores countries across all 17 goals – from poverty eradication, education, and healthcare to clean energy and climate change – and then ranks them comparatively.
The Sustainable Development Report (SDR) 2025, published by UN SDSN, covers all 193 UN member states and uses over 200,000 data points from official and international sources for its calculations. Finland, Sweden, and Denmark continue to top the global rankings this year. With consistent measurements since 2016, the SDG Index allows for comparisons of sustainability “sweet spots” among economies, based not just on GDP scale but also on public service quality, environment, welfare, and institutional capacity.
The practical significance of Vietnam’s ranking of 61st with 73.35 points lies in it being a multi-pillar composite result, reflecting relatively even progress rather than a breakthrough in just a few goals. The eight-rank difference with Singapore – a high-income economy – and the 10-20 rank difference with similarly-scaled ASEAN countries indicate room for Vietnam to maintain its pace of reform in public services, social infrastructure, and green transition while avoiding a “score trap” where a few declining indicators could pull down the overall score. Conversely, Vietnam’s position behind Thailand indicates the need to accelerate progress in challenging areas like climate and energy, and innovation, where Thailand is currently improving rapidly.
Within the region, this year’s ranking fluctuations reflect a reallocation of “growth quality” among economies. Indonesia and Malaysia, despite their large GDP scales, trail Vietnam due to a lack of improvement in some environmental and public service indicators.
In contrast, Cambodia and Laos, at the bottom of the ASEAN rankings, highlight structural gaps in social infrastructure and institutional capacity, despite progress in some specialized indicators.
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