Resource: Vietnamese Local Government Levels Pre-2025 and Post-2025

A basic reference for Vietnamese Local Government Tiers prior to the 2025 reforms and after those reforms. This is commonly known as the change from the "three tier" system to the "two tier" system.

Prior to the Re-organization:

The different “Tiers” of Vietnamese local governments prior to 2025 reforms. Unlike American Cities, which can vary wildly from city-to-city, county-to-county, state-to-state, the basic “form” for how local governments should be organized is set at the National level in Vietnam. Higher tiers represent larger geographic boundaries, and arrows point towards the units that are contained ‘within’ those boundaries. Not all higher-tier units can contain all types of lower-tier units, based on the old legal regime. This is laid out in Laws No. 65/2025/QH15 Dated February 19, 2025 and No. 77/2015/QH13 Dated June 19, 2015 on the Organization of Local Government.

After the Re-organization:

The different “Tiers” of Vietnamese local government after the 2025 reforms. The entire “District” level has been removed, as well as one of the categories of “Commune-Level” administrative units. Higher tiers represent larger geographic boundaries, and arrows point towards units that are contained ‘within’ those boundaries. In this new system, all types of lower-tier administrative units could be housed within one of the two higher-tier administrative units. This is laid out in Law No. 72/2025/QH15 on the Organization of Local Government, dated June 16, 2025.