What Vietnamese Youth Live For
Vietnam is one of the youngest nations in Southeast Asia, and it is the young who set the country's pace. This generation grew up with a smartphone in hand, spends evenings in cafés, dreams of running its own business and still treasures family traditions. Here is what young Vietnamese really live for in 2026 — and why it is fascinating even for a visitor.
The youngest country in the region
Vietnam is home to about 101.6 million people, and the median age is only around 34. Young people aged 10–24 number some 20.4 million — roughly one in five citizens — while those under 25 make up more than a third of the population.
Demographers call this the "golden window": plenty of working-age people and relatively few elderly. The window will last until about 2039, after which the country will age fast — by 2035 Vietnam will already be an "ageing" society. That is why the young are today's main engine of the economy and culture.
Life inside the phone
Young Vietnamese are among the most "online" in Asia. About 85% of Gen Z open social media every day. The leaders are TikTok (used by over 85% of the young), Instagram and Facebook, plus the local messenger Zalo for chatting and payments.
They spend 5–7 hours a day on digital entertainment, with TikTok alone taking about an hour. The peak is the evening, from 7 to 11 pm. For this generation the phone is not just leisure — it is how they get news, pick products and stay in touch.
The café as a second living room
Coffee in Vietnam is a religion of its own. The country has more than 500,000 cafés — from tiny alley stalls to trendy chains. Young people drink coffee daily: the classic iced cà phê sữa đá, but increasingly they experiment with coconut coffee, salted cream and nitro cold brew.
For the young the café is a "third place" between home and work: they study, work from a laptop, meet friends and shoot photos for social media. Chain cafés grew from 816 in 2019 to about 2,067 in 2025, and half of Vietnamese visit such venues 3–4 times a week.
Money and conscious consumption
Young buyers look beyond price and quality. They care about a brand's values, how it treats employees and the planet, and how sustainable its business is.
Gen Z increasingly chooses local Vietnamese brands — for character and closeness, not only price. The lesson for business: honesty and care work with the young, not aggressive advertising.
Their own business and startups
Entrepreneurship is a big dream of young Vietnam. The country already has over 4,000 innovative startups and even "unicorns" worth more than a billion dollars — the payment service MoMo and the game studio Sky Mavis. The young eagerly try IoT, big data and artificial intelligence.
But the path is hard: only an estimated 3–5% reach a sustainable business — held back by limited capital, blurred focus and the work-life balance. Even so, more and more young Vietnamese return from abroad to build their ventures at home.
Study, English and the wider world
Young Vietnamese value education highly and see English as a passport to the world. Studying abroad is a mass dream: in 2019–2020 alone about 190,000 Vietnamese students studied overseas, and the number keeps rising with family incomes.
The most popular destination is the United States. Many then return home with experience and knowledge, strengthening the local economy.
Between tradition and modernity
For all their digital life, young Vietnamese remain people of tradition. Family, respect for elders and the big holidays — above all the lunar New Year, Tết — stay at the centre.
But tradition now goes hand in hand with the modern: gifts are ordered online, greetings are filmed, and confessions and celebrations are increasingly styled beautifully — with bouquets, balloons and photo zones.
The youth of Nha Trang
In Nha Trang the young have their own rhythm. The city lives on the sea and tourism, so many work part-time in cafés, hotels and services, sharpening their English and Korean in practice.
In the evenings the promenade and cafés fill with young crowds, and the most "Instagrammable" spots — beaches, roll-cafés and viewpoints — become the backdrop for endless photos. Here the modern lifestyle and resort ease meet especially vividly.
Flowers and balloons in young lives
Gifts are a key part of this culture. Young Vietnamese and visitors give flowers and helium balloons for birthdays, confessions, anniversaries and graduations — and then post the photos.
If you are in Nha Trang and want to congratulate someone beautifully, we will make a fresh bouquet or balloon set and deliver it the same day — to a hotel, a villa or straight to a café. Message us on WhatsApp, Telegram or KakaoTalk.
