 It is the fifth-largest city in Rondônia and has the best HDI in the state (0,771 - UNDP/2000).According to IBGE-2015, Vilhena also had a GDP of 
R$ 1.824.367,69(approximately US$ 460 million), which represented a GDP per capita of R$ 23.055,20 (around US$ 6.000,00)

In common with many other municipalities of Rondônia, Vilhena was started in the early twentieth century, around 1910, when Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon built telegraph posts in the fields of the Plateau Parecis, linking several cities between Cuiaba and Porto Velho.Towns often would rise around these posts, Vilhena included.