Commune (Vietnam)

Administrative units
of Vietnam
Province-level
District-level
Commune-level
Village-level
For other uses, see Commune (disambiguation).

A commune (Vietnamese: xã) is a type of third tier subdivision of Vietnam. It is divided into 11,162 units along with wards and townships, which have an equal status.[1]

Communes have a lower status than provincial cities, towns or districts.

This subdivision has existed since 1428, when Emperor Lê Thái Tổ re-organised the country into five administrative levels. Xã 社 was the lowest level, equivalent to a village.

Since 2019, Vietnam has undertaken a comprehensive rearrangement of administrative units in order to streamline the apparatus of local authorities.[2] The re-organisation, conducted in two periods, between 2020 and 2023 and between 2023 and 2030, comprises forced mergers of several districts and commune-level administrative units and localities. As of April 2023, the number of third-level subdivision units dropped to 10,598 units including 1,737 wards, 614 commune-level towns and 8,247 communes.[3] This has been a significant reduction from 11,162 in 2018.

  1. ^ "Tổng hợp đơn vị hành chính". Đơn vị hành chính. Archived from the original on 2015-11-13.
  2. ^ "Vietnam to merge districts and communes in selected provinces". Nhân Dân. 2019-07-30. Archived from the original on 2023-12-20. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  3. ^ "Số lượng đơn vị hành chính cấp tỉnh, huyện, xã ở Việt Nam". Thư viện pháp luật. Archived from the original on 2023-12-20. Retrieved 2023-12-20.