Kalpana Kalpana (Editor)

Subdivisions of Vietnam

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit

Vietnam is a unitary state in Southeast Asia. Vietnam is officially subdivided into 3 administrative tiers:

Contents

  • First tier or provincial level (cấp tỉnh): provinces (tỉnh) and municipalities (thành phố trực thuộc trung ương)
  • Second tier or district level (cấp huyện): rural districts (huyện), urban districts (quận), provincial cities (thành phố trực thuộc tỉnh) and towns (thị xã)
  • Third tier or commune level (cấp xã): communes (xã), wards (phường) and townships (thị trấn)

    • The fourth tier or village level also exists as hamlet (xóm, ấp) and village (làng, thôn, bản). However this is not an official tier.

    Provincial level

    There are:

  • 5 municipalities (also known as centrally-controlled cities): Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Cần Thơ, Danang and Haiphong
  • 58 provinces

    • The local authority at provincial level includes:

  • People's Council (hội đồng nhân dân) - legislative branch: headed by a Chairman
  • People's Committee (ủy ban nhân dân) - executive branch: headed by a Chairman
  • People's Court (tòa án nhân dân) - judiciary branch: headed by a Chief Judge
  • Committee of the Communist Party (ban chấp hành đảng bộ): headed by a Secretary

    • District level

    The provinces are subdivided into provincial cities, towns (for urban area) and rural districts. Normally the provincial city or town is the capital of that province.

    The municipalities are subdivided into rural districts and urban districts. There is no official capital of the municipality but usually the seat of local authority is located at a central urban district.

    Based on latest sources of General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO), there are 713 district-level subdivisions with 546 districts, 49 urban districts, 51 towns, 67 provincial cities.

    The rural districts can be upgraded to towns which can be upgraded to provincial cities.

    The local authority at district level includes:

  • People's Council (hội đồng nhân dân) - legislative branch: headed by a Chairman. However, since 2008, Vietnam started to abolish the People's Council at some districts and urban districts.
  • People's Committee (ủy ban nhân dân) - executive branch: headed by a Chairman
  • People's Court (tòa án nhân dân) - judiciary branch: headed by a Chief Judge
  • Committee of the Communist Party (ban chấp hành đảng bộ): headed by a Secretary

    • Commune level

    The provincial cities and towns are subdivided into wards (for urban area) and communes (for rural area). There is no designated capital for provincial cities or towns, but usually the seat of local authority is located in a central ward.

    The urban districts are subdivided into wards. The rural districts are subdivided into townships (for urban area) and communes (for rural area). There is no designated capital for urban and rural districts, but usually the seat of local authority is located in a central ward or central township

    There are 11162 Commune-level units with 8978 communes, 1581 wards, 603 townships, GSO said in 2016.

    Townships are known as thị trấn in Vietnamese, but less common type of townships are farm townships (thị trấn nông trường). The communes can be upgraded to townships (in rural districts) or wards (in provincial cities or towns).

    The local authority at commune level includes:

  • People's Council (hội đồng nhân dân) - legislative branch: headed by a Chairman. However, since 2008, Vietnam started to abolish the People's Council at some wards.
  • People's Committee (ủy ban nhân dân) - executive branch: headed by a Chairman
  • Committee of the Communist Party (ban chấp hành đảng bộ): headed by a Secretary

    • Other subdivisions

    Apart from administrative divisions, Vietnam is also divided into geographical regions, electoral divisions and military regions.

    Geographical regions

    Vietnam is geographically divided into:

  • Northern Vietnam (Bắc Bộ):
  • Northwest Vietnam (Tây Bắc Bộ)
  • Northeast Vietnam (Đông Bắc Bộ)
  • Red River Delta (Đồng Bằng Sông Hồng)
  • Central Vietnam (Trung Bộ):
  • North Central Coast Vietnam (Bắc Trung Bộ)
  • South Central Coast Vietnam (Nam Trung Bộ)
  • Central Highlands (Tây Nguyên)
  • Southern Vietnam (Nam Bộ):
  • Southeast Vietnam (Đông Nam Bộ)
  • Mekong Delta-Southwest Vietnam (Đồng Bằng Sông Cửu Long) or (Tây Nam Bộ)

    • Electoral divisions

    For electoral purpose, each province or municipality is divided into electoral units (đơn vị bầu cử) which are further divided into voting zones (khu vự bỏ phiếu). The number of electoral divisions varies from election to election and depends on the population of that province or municipality.

    Since the parliamentary election in 2011, there are 183 electoral units and 89,960 voting zones.

    Military regions

    Vietnam People's Army is organised into 8 military regions:

  • High Command of Capital Hanoi (Bộ Tư lệnh Thủ đô Hà Nội) in Ha Noi
  • 1st Military Region (Vietnam People's Army) (Quân khu 1) in Northeast
  • 2nd Military Region (Vietnam People's Army) (Quân khu 2) in Northwest
  • 3rd Military Region (Vietnam People's Army) (Quân khu 3) in Red River Delta
  • 4th Military Region (Vietnam People's Army) (Quân khu 4) in North Central Coast
  • 5th Military Region (Vietnam People's Army) (Quân khu 5) in South Central Coast and Central Highland
  • 7th Military Region (Vietnam People's Army) (Quân khu 7) in Southeast
  • 9th Military Region (Vietnam People's Army) (Quân khu 9) in Mekong Delta

    • References

    Subdivisions of Vietnam Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA