Vietnam is divided into 25 provinces and 9 municipalities. It is a unitary state.
Administrative units (from 1 July 2025)
Pursuant to the constitution, there are two levels of administrative divisions in Vietnam: provinces and communes. Depending on the level of urbanisation, each level of administrative division comprises multiple types of administrative units: Provincial level: municipality ( or simply ) and province () Commune level: ward () in major urban areas, commune () for rural areas, and special zone () for considerable island formations.
+ Administrative hierarchyLevel TypeProvincial level Province() Centrally governed cities()Communal level Ward() Commune() Special zone()
First level
As of 20 September 2026, the first level consists of 9 centrally governed cities and 25 provinces.
Second level
Both municipalities and provinces are subdivided into wards (phường), communes (xã) and special administrative zones (đặc khu). As of July 1, 2025, there are 3,321 second-level units with 687 wards, 2,621 communes and 13 special administrative regions.
Unofficial third level Communes and wards are divided into villages (thôn) and neighborhoods (tổ dân phố, khu phố), respectively. They do not have official status, but rather, exist for the purposes of local governance. As such, officials at this level are only entitled to an operating allowance and aren't recognized as actual civil servants.
Before 1 July 2025
Second level
Municipalities are subdivided into district-level cities (municipal cities), urban districts, towns, and rural districts. There is no official capital or seat of the municipality but local authority headquarters are usually located in one or more central urban districts.
Provinces are subdivided into district-level cities (provincial cities), towns, and rural districts. Currently, all provinces have their capitals in a district-level city, although some were previously towns.
As of 1 September 2024, there are 704 second-tier units.
As urbanisation progresses, rural districts may be reclassified as towns, then to provincial cities (or towns and municipal cities in municipalities, and eventually to urban districts if they merge into the central urban area of a municipality). Note that the term
From 1 July 2025, as a result of a constitutional amendment and related legislation, all district-level administrative subdivisions ceased to exist.
Third level Urban districts are subdivided into wards, while cities and towns are subdivided into (urban) wards and (rural) communes. Rural districts are subdivided into (urban) townships (or townlets) and (rural) communes. Only rural districts have designated capitals, usually in a township.
As of 1 September 2024, there are 10,542 third-level units with 1,775 wards, 618 townships and 8,149 communes.
Townships are known as in Vietnamese, but less common type of townships are farm townships (). These were formerly more common during the planned economy era.
A fourth, unofficial tier also exists, with categories translated as hamlets (), villages () and neighbourhoods ().
Geographic regions
For various administrative, planning, and statistical purposes, the Vietnamese government groups its provinces and municipalities into 3 geographic regions and 6 subregions (known officially as "socio-economic" regions), two of which may be divided into two additional subregions of their own.
+ Regions of Vietnam Geographic region "Socio-economic (sub)regions"Equivalent geographic subregionsNorthern Vietnam (Bắc Bộ, Miền Bắc) Northern Midland and Mountainous Regions (Trung du và miền núi phía Bắc)Northwest (Tây Bắc Bộ)Northeast (Đông Bắc Bộ) Red River Delta (Đồng bằng sông Hồng)Central Vietnam (Trung Bộ, Miền Trung)North Central Coast (Bắc Trung Bộ) South Central Coast and Central Highlands (Duyên hải Nam Trung Bộ và Tây Nguyên)South Central Coast (Duyên hải Nam Trung Bộ)Central Highlands (Tây Nguyên)Southern Vietnam (Nam Bộ, Miền Nam)Southeast (Đông Nam Bộ) Mekong River Delta (Đồng bằng sông Cửu Long)
Other subdivisions Vietnam is also divided into electoral divisions and military regions.
Electoral divisions
For electoral purposes, each province or municipality is divided into electoral units () which are further divided into voting zones (). The number of electoral divisions varies from election to election and depends on the population of that province or municipality.
Since the 2011 National Assembly election, there have been 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
See also List of cities in Vietnam Plan to arrange and merge administrative units in Vietnam 2024–2025
Notes
References