Roll call of 84 provincial cities when district level is abolished

The project to rearrange and reorganize administrative units at all levels and build a two-level local government has just been approved by the Politburo and is seeking opinions from ministries, branches and localities. It is expected that the upcoming local government model will include two levels: provincial level and grassroots level, not district level.

According to the Law on Organization of Local Government amended in 2025, district-level administrative units include districts, towns, provincial cities, and cities under centrally run cities.

After two recent rounds of reorganization and merger of district-level administrative units (2019-2021 and 2023-2025), the country now has 696 district-level administrative units. Of these, there are 2 cities under centrally-run cities (Thu Duc - Ho Chi Minh City, Thuy Nguyen - Hai Phong City), 84 provincial cities, 53 towns, 49 districts and 508 rural districts.

Thus, the orientation of not organizing at the district level also means that 696 district-level administrative units, including 84 provincial cities, will be reorganized, no longer following the current model.

Currently, 84 provincial cities are considered major urban areas in terms of economy, culture and transport connections of the province. Most of these cities are administrative centers, where the headquarters of state agencies of that province are located. Some provincial cities are designated as economic and cultural centers of an entire region.

Some cities in the province have a high level of urbanization, only have wards but no communes such as: Bac Ninh, Di An, Dong Ha, Soc Trang, Thu Dau Mot, Tu Son, Vinh Long...

Among the 57 provinces, 2 localities have 5 cities (the most cities): Quang Ninh (Ha Long, Mong Cai, Uong Bi, Cam Pha, Dong Trieu) and Binh Duong (Thu Dau Mot, Di An, Thuan An, Tan Uyen, Ben Cat).

Among the 84 provincial cities, there are some newly established cities such as Phu My (2025), Hoa Lu (2025), Dong Trieu (2024), Ben Cat (2024)... In addition, Thuy Nguyen city (under the central city of Hai Phong) was established on January 1, 2025.

On the contrary, there are many old cities with rich culture and history, for example Da Lat was founded in the 19th century (1893).

Da Lat is the first city in Vietnam to be established in Lam Dong province. It was originally built by the French as a resort for the upper class and officials at that time, thanks to its cool climate and beautiful natural scenery.

At that time, Dalat was one of the famous resorts and quickly became a tourist and educational center of Indochina.

Today, Da Lat is a first-class city under the province, playing the role of political, economic and cultural center of Lam Dong province and the Central Highlands region. Da Lat also became the administrative center of Lam Dong when the province was established in 1919.

After Da Lat, there were a number of other cities established in the 20th century such as: Nam Dinh (1921), Hue (1929) which has just become a centrally-governed city since the beginning of this year, Viet Tri (1962), Vinh (1963), My Tho (1967), Nha Trang (1977), Quy Nhon (1986)...

Most of the remaining provincial cities were established in the period 2000 - 2020.

List of 84 provincial cities: