On the first tier, Vietnam is divided into 58 provinces (Vietnamese: tỉnh|links=no) and 5 municipalities (Vietnamese: thành phố trực thuộc trung ương). Municipalities are the highest-ranked cities in Vietnam.[1] Municipalities are centrally-controlled cities and have special status equal to a province.
The municipalities are divided into urban districts (Vietnamese: quận), municipal cities (Vietnamese: thành phố thuộc thành phố trực thuộc trung ương), towns (Vietnamese: thị xã) and rural districts (Vietnamese: huyện) as the second-tier units. At the third tier, urban districts are divided into wards (Vietnamese: phường), towns are divided into wards (Vietnamese: phường) and communes (Vietnamese: xã), while rural districts are divided into townships (Vietnamese: thị trấn) and communes (Vietnamese: xã).__TOC__
| class=unsortable | Municipality | class=unsortable | Vietnamese name | class=unsortable | Class | class=unsortable | Region | Established | Population | Population density | Area (km) | class=unsortable | Divisions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hà Nội | align=center | Special | align=center | 1945 | align=right | 8,053,663 | align=right | align=right | 3,344.7 | align=center | List | ||||
| Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh | align=center | Special | align=center | 1955 | align=right | 8,993,082 | align=right | align=right | 2,095 | align=center | List | ||||
| Cần Thơ | align=center | align=center | 2003 | align=right | 1,235,171 | align=right | align=right | 1,389.6 | align=center | List | |||||
| Đà Nẵng | align=center | align=center | 1997 | align=right | 1,134,310 | align=right | align=right | 1,256 | align=center | List | |||||
| Hải Phòng | align=center | align=center | 1955 | align=right | 2,028,514 | align=right | align=right | 1,507.57 | align=center | List |