Administrative Division of Vietnam

At the first, largest level, the whole country is divided into 58 provinces ( Vietnamese. Tỉnh ) and 5 large cities of central subordination ( Vietnamese. Thành phố trực thuộc Trung ương ) having the same status as the provinces .

Most of the inhabitants are in the southern capital of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City, but the most densely populated provinces are located in the north in the Red River Delta region. The most sparsely populated province is Bakkan.

Table 1. Cities of central subordination (GPC) and the Province of Vietnam , 2009 ^[2] .

Top-level administrative units are sometimes conditionally grouped into eight economic regions of a country .

Table 2. Economic regions of Vietnam , 2009.

The second level is considered district, on it there are smaller administrative units. In 2013, there were 703 such units in the country ^[3]

• administrative units of the second order ( viet. quận ),
• cities of provincial subordination ( Vietnamese. Thành phố trực thuộc tỉnh ),
• administrative units of the first order ( Vietnamese. thị xã ),
• rural areas or counties ( Vietnamese. huyện ).

Cities of central subordination can include both second-order administrative units (quận) and first-order administrative units (thị xã) and districts (huyện).
Provinces may include provincial subordinate cities (Thành phố trực thuộc tỉnh), first-order administrative units (thị xã) and districts (huyện).

At the third, community, level, there are the smallest administrative units:

• city ​​blocks ( viet. phường ),
• Community Communities ( Vietnamese. thị trấn ),
• villages ( Vietnamese. xã ).

Second-order administrative units (quận) may include city ​​blocks (phường).
Provincial cities may include city ​​blocks (phường) and villages (xã).
First-order administrative units (thị xã) may also include city ​​blocks (phường) and villages (xã).
Districts (huyện) may include both urban communal communities (thị trấn) and villages (xã).

According to the website of the Vietnam Main Statistical Office, in 2015 there were 11,162 administrative units of the third level, of which 8,978 villages, 1,581 urban communal communities and 603 urban districts ^[4]

City commune-communes ( Vietnamese. Thị trấn ) and villages ( Vietnamese. Xã ) consist of self-government units of the simplest level - villages ( thôn ) and so on. This level is not administrative.

Prior to the reunification of Vietnam, North Vietnam had a policy of creating autonomous regions in the zone of resettlement of national minorities. There were three such areas:

• Vietbak Autonomous Region, mainly populated by the Thai (Tho), Nungi and Yao peoples ;
• Autonomous Region of Thaymeo , dominated by thai and miao ;
• Autonomous Region of Laohayen .

After the unification of the country in 1976, the autonomous regions “in the interests of accelerating the construction of socialism” were liquidated in 1978 ^{[5] [6]} .

As of December 31, 2015, the country included: 67 cities of provincial subordination , 49 administrative units of the second order, 51 administrative units of the first order, 546 districts , 1581 quarters, 603 urban communal communities, 8978 villages ^[7] .

Vietnam is a dynamically developing country with a constant population growth. Therefore, changes in administrative division continue. For example, in 2008, Hanoi annexed the nearby province of . The number of provincial subordination cities has also changed lately: on December 31, 2008 there were 47 cities ^[8] , on March 1, 2010 - 54 cities, and at the beginning of 2013 there were already 60 cities.

• Cities of Vietnam