District-level town

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Municipalities, Cities, & Towns in Vietnam
Municipalities: red (special class), pink (class 1)
Municipal cities: green (class 1)
Provincial cities: dark blue (class 1), cyan (class 2), light blue (class 3)
Provincial towns: orange (class 3), yellow (class 4)

A district-level town (Vietnamese: thị xã) is a type of second tier subdivision of Vietnam. District-level towns along with urban districts, districts, 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, but not of a municipality as the second tier subdivision. At the third tier, towns are divided into wards and communes.

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 (Vietnamese: quận), districts (huyện), municipal city (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 communes (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)), 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 or township (Vietnamese: thị trấn) can be upgraded to a district-level town or town (Vietnamese: thị xã), 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, Hà Tiên, Vị Thanh, Gia Nghĩa.

When a district-level town is downgraded, the urban become a commune-level town, 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 as district-level town is divided into two commune-level towns, Phan Rang and Tháp Chàm in 1977. Each commune-level town 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 from 1962 to 1980, later downgraded into a commune-level town and was recovered between from 1988 to 1994 and is now an urban district 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 urban district of Hải Phòng.

Sơn Tây is a district-level town governed under Hanoi in the period 1978 to 1991, then merged into Hà Tây Province. August 2007 this district-level town was upgraded into provincial city. In 2008 Hà Tây Province was merged into Hanoi, Sơn Tây was moved back into district-level town.

List of district-level towns

Name	Province/Municipality	Population (person)	Area (km2)	Established	Class
An Khê	Gia Lai	63,118	199.12	2003	4
An Nhơn	Bình Định	178,817	242.64	2011	3
Ayun Pa	Gia Lai	35,058	287	2007	4
Ba Đồn	Quảng Bình	115,196	163.18	2013	4
Bến Cát	Bình Dương	221,230	234.40	2013	3
Bỉm Sơn	Thanh Hóa	56,893	66.88	1981	3
Bình Long	Bình Phước	60,233	126.29	2009	4
Bình Minh	Vĩnh Long	95,285	93.62	2012	4
Buôn Hồ	Đắk Lắk	101,554	282.06	2008	4
Cai Lậy	Tiền Giang	123,775	140.20	2008	4
Cửa Lò	Nghệ An	55,000	28	1994	3
Chơn Thành	Bình Phước	121,083	390.34	2020	4
Duyên Hải	Trà Vinh	56,241	177.10	2015	4
Duy Tiên	Hà Nam	154,016	120.92	2019	4
Điện Bàn	Quảng Nam	235,013	214.30	2015	4
Đông Hòa	Phú Yên	119,991	265.62	2020	4
Đông Triều	Quảng Ninh	179,902	397.20	2015	3
Đức Phổ	Quảng Ngãi	150,927	372.76	2020	4
Giá Rai	Bạc Liêu	140,516	354.70	2015	4
Gò Công	Tiền Giang	97,709	102	1987	3
Hòa Thành	Tây Ninh	147,666	82.92	2020	4
Hoài Nhơn	Bình Định	212,063	420,84	2020	4
Hoàng Mai	Nghệ An	105,105	169.75	2013	4
Hồng Lĩnh	Hà Tĩnh	36,805	58.55	1992	4
Hương Thủy	Thừa Thiên–Huế	96,525	458.17	2010	4
Hương Trà	Thừa Thiên–Huế	118,354	518.53	2011	4
Kiến Tường	Long An	64,589	204.28	2013	4
Kinh Môn	Hải Dương	203,638	165.33	2019	4
Kỳ Anh	Hà Tĩnh	85,500	280.30	2015	3
La Gi	Bình Thuận	112,558	182.82	2005	3
Long Mỹ	Hậu Giang	74,694	144.00	2015	3
Mường Lay	Điện Biên	14,379	114.03	1971	4
Mỹ Hào	Hưng Yên	110,268	791	2019	4
Ngã Năm	Sóc Trăng	84,022	242.20	2013	4
Nghi Sơn	Thanh Hoá	307,304	455.61	2020	4
Nghĩa Lộ	Yên Bái	26,000	29.66	1995	4
Ninh Hòa	Khánh Hòa	233,558	1197.77	2010	4
Phú Mỹ	Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu	213,658	333.84	2018	3
Phú Thọ	Phú Thọ	62,000	64.5	1903	3
Phước Long	Bình Phước	50,019	118.83	2009	4
Quảng Trị	Quảng Trị	22,760	44.03	1989	4
Quảng Yên	Quảng Ninh	139,596	314.2	2011	3
Sa Pa	Lào Cai	61,498	681.37	2019	4
Sông Cầu	Phú Yên	101,521	489.28	2009	3
Sơn Tây	Hà Nội	181,831	113.5	1903	3
Tân Châu	An Giang	184,129	175.7	2009	4
Thái Hòa	Nghệ An	66,000	135	2007	4
Trảng Bàng	Tây Ninh	161,831	340.14	2020	4
Vĩnh Châu	Sóc Trăng	163,918	473.4	2011	4
Việt Yên	Bắc Giang	229,162	171	2024	4

See also

• Mueang
• Urban township