A district-level town () is a type of second tier subdivision of Vietnam. District-level towns along with urban districts,

districts A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...

, municipal cities, and provincial cites have equal status. Also by virtue of Decree No. 42/2009/ND-CP, towns are officially classified into Class-3 or Class-4. The towns may only be a capital of a

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

, but not of a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

as the second tier subdivision. At the third tier, towns are divided into wards and

communes A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

. Most provincial capitals were once towns, but now most of them have become provincial cities.

District level

In Vietnam, there are other kinds of district-level urban subdivision: urban districts (),

(''huyện''),

municipal city A municipal city (), commonly known as a city within a city, is a type of second tier subdivision of Vietnam along with urban district, district, town and provincial city, all of which have equal status. A municipal city is a satellite city o ...

(''thành phố thuộc thành phố trực thuộc trung ương'') and provincial cities (''thành phố thuộc tỉnh''). The urban districts is within urban and only consists of wards, but provincial cities and towns can consist of the wards (within urban) and

(within suburban). Towns are similar with provincial cities, but towns are smaller than provincial cities in population density. Moreover, municipality can includes towns (

Sơn Tây (Hanoi) ''Toxicodendron succedaneum'', the wax tree, Japanese Hazenoki tree (Sumac or wax tree), sơn in Vietnamese language, Vietnamese or charão in Portuguese language, Portuguese, is a flowering plant species in the genus ''Toxicodendron'' found in ...

), even municipal cities. The type town is categorized as urban and its residents is classified as urban population, although there may still be a part of residents living in agriculture. Main economical activities in town included industry, services and business.

Upgrade and downgrade

Regularly, a

commune-level town Commune-level town (), a type of third tier subdivision of Vietnam is divided into 11,162 units along with ward and commune have equal status. By virtue of Decree No. 42/2009/ND-CP, township are officially classified into Class-2, Class-3, Clas ...

or township () can be upgraded to a district-level town or town (), and district-level towns can develop into provincial cities. But the district-level town can also be downgraded to a district capitals, especially when there is a merger of the provinces. That are the cases of the An Lộc (provincial capital of former Bình Long Province), Sông Cầu (formerly the provincial capital of Phú Yên Province) ... Some district-level towns were downgraded into commune-level towns for some time and then be re-established, as Nghĩa Lộ, Bắc Cạn, Đồ Sơn (from 2007, became urban district of Đồ Sơn),

Phúc Yên Phúc Yên is a city in Vĩnh Phúc Province in the Red River Delta region of Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a ...

Hà Tiên Hà Tiên is a Provincial city (Vietnam), provincial city in Kiên Giang Province, Mekong Delta in Vietnam. Its area is and the population as of 2019 is 81,576. The city borders Cambodia to the west. Hà Tiên is a tourist site of the region th ...

Vị Thanh Vị Thanh is a provincial city and also the capital city of Hậu Giang Province in Vietnam. Formerly, it was the capital town of Chương-Thiện province in South Vietnam. In 2004, Vị Thanh became the capital of Hậu Giang Province. It h ...

Gia Nghĩa Gia Nghĩa is the Provincial city of Đắk Nông Province, in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. It is located on the main road northward to Buôn Ma Thuột. Name Its present name ''Gia Nghĩa'' from the original name in Jarai language: Y ...

. When a district-level town is downgraded, the urban become a

, and the suburban is merged into other districts or established rural communes. Some district-level towns have become commune-level towns and not re-established, so far as: Đô Lương, Tiên Yên, Ninh Giang, Cát Bà, Vĩnh An of Đồng Nai Province. There is a rare case:

Phan Rang Phan may refer to: * Phan (surname), a Vietnamese family name * Phan District, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand * Phan River The Phan River () is a river of Bình Thuận Province, Vietnam.Vietnam Administrative Atlas, NXB Bản Đồ, 2004 It flo ...

as district-level town is divided into two commune-level towns,

and Tháp Chàm in 1977. Each

belonged to a county ( Ninh Hải and An Sơn), and in 1981 the two commune-level towns was merged and re-established as county-level town named Phan Rang–Tháp Chàm (now as provincial city). Kiến An, a former district-level town, located in a municipality in

Hải Phòng Haiphong or Hai Phong (, ) is the third-largest city in Vietnam and is the principal port city of the Red River Delta. The municipality has an area of , consisting of 8 List of urban districts of Vietnam, urban districts, 6 Huyện, rural distri ...

from 1962 to 1980, later downgraded into a

and was recovered between from 1988 to 1994 and is now an

urban district An urban district is a division generally managed by a local government. It may also refer to a city district, district, urban area or quarter Specific urban districts in some countries include: * Urban districts of Denmark * Districts of Germa ...

of Hải Phòng. Đồ Sơn ever (after 1994) was the only district-level town within a municipality (Hải Phòng), until September 12, 2007 it became the new

of Hải Phòng.

Sơn Tây ''Toxicodendron succedaneum'', the wax tree, Japanese Hazenoki tree (Sumac or wax tree), sơn in Vietnamese or charão in Portuguese, is a flowering plant species in the genus '' Toxicodendron'' found in Asia, although it has been planted else ...

is a district-level town governed under

Hanoi Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...

in the period 1978 to 1991, then merged into

Hà Tây Province Hà Tây () was a former provinces of Vietnam, province of Vietnam, in the Red River Delta, now part of Hanoi. Geography Hà Tây province was located in the Red River Delta bordering Hanoi municipality, Hưng Yên Province, Hưng Yên, Hà ...

. August 2007 this district-level town was upgraded into provincial city. In 2008

was merged into

, Sơn Tây was moved back into district-level town.

List of district-level towns

Municipal district-level towns

Provincial district-level towns

References

{{Subdivisions of Vietnam Subdivisions of Vietnam

District A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...