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 Cuiabá and Porto Velho.

[citation needed] Migration from southern and southeastern regions caused the population to increase in 1959 after the construction of highway BR-364, which connects the north with the rest of the country and was paved in 1986.

The period in which the population rose more dramatically was the 1970s, as from 1964 many migrants from all over the country were attracted to the region because of the distribution of land to settlers by INCRA (National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform).

[citation needed] The climate is a transition between equatorial and tropical, hot and humid, with some short periods of cool weather from May to September, when the minimum temperature can reach 7 °C in the coolest days, but normally it stays around 12-16 °C.

The high altitude in comparison with the region average (Vilhena is situated 615 above sea level, while other cities of the state are, as a general rule, around 100-200m above it) provides constant refreshing winds, mainly during the night, keeping the temperature pleasant.

[citation needed] Since 2010, when the Transoceanic Road was entirely paved, linking the State of Acre, in Brazil, to the city of Cusco, in Peru, transport by road, from Vilhena to other neighbor countries, such as Peru, Chile, Colombia and Bolívia, became shorter and quicker, representing a great facility to exportation of its production.