A commune () is a type of second tier subdivision of Vietnam. It is divided into 2,621 units. Communes have a lower status than provinces and municipalities.
This subdivision has existed since 1428, when Emperor Lê Thái Tá» re-organised the country into five administrative levels. Xã 社 was the lowest level, equivalent to a village.
Since 2019, Vietnam has undertaken a comprehensive rearrangement of administrative units in order to streamline the apparatus of local authorities. The re-organisation, conducted in two periods, between 2020 and 2023 and between 2023 and 2030, comprises forced mergers of several districts and commune-level administrative units and localities. As of April 2023, the number of third-level subdivision units dropped to 10,598 units including 1,737 wards, 614 commune-level towns and 8,247 communes. This has been a significant reduction from 11,162 in 2018.
Certain small villages are not officially regarded as administrative communes.
As of December 31, 2008, Vietnam had 9,111 communes. Thanh Hoá Province contained the highest number of communes (586) amongst all province-level administrative units, followed by Nghá» An Province with 436 and Hanoi with 408. ÃÂàNẵng, with only 11 communes, contained the fewest. Counted together, the ten province-level administrative units containing the most communesâÂÂnamely, Thanh Hoá (586), Nghá» An (436), Hanoi (408), Thái Bình (267), Phú Thá» (251), HàTénh (238), Hải Dðáng (234), Quảng Nam (210), Bắc Giang (207) and Lạng Sán (207)âÂÂcontain one-third of all the communes in Vietnam. Three of these are located in the Red River Delta region, three in the ÃÂông Bắc (Northeast) region, three in the Bắc Trung Bá» (North Central Coast) region and one in the Nam Trung Bá» (South Central Coast) region.
According to data extracted from General Statistics Office of Vietnam, there were 11,164 third-level (commune-level) administrative subdivisions. As of 2018 February, the number of third-level administrative subdivisions in Vietnam was 11,162.
As of April 2023, the number of third-level units dropped to 10,598 units including 1,737 wards, 614 commune-level towns and 8,247 communes
After ascending to the throne of Vietnam and established the Lê Dynasty, Lê Thái Tá» divided the country into ÃÂạo é (province), phủ åºÂ, huyá»Ân 縣 (district or county), and xã 社 (commune). The leader of the basic administrative unit xã was titled xã quan 社宠, later renamed xã trðá»Âng 社é·. Xã were classified as ÃÂại xã 大社, trung xã ä¸Â社 and tiá»Âu xã å°Â社 based on their population.
The Nguyá» n Dynasty (1802-1945) maintained xã as the smalles administrative unit. The name of the manager was renamed to làtrðá»Âng éÂÂé· by Emperor Minh Mạng in his 1831 administrative reforms. The làtrðá»Âng was elected by villagers democratically among members of a legislative council called Há»Âi ÃÂá»Âng kỳ dá»Âch or Há»Âi ÃÂá»Âng kỳ mục, which was made up of most educated people in the village.
After successfully colonising Cochinchina and the whole Vietnam, the French introduced reforms to the village councils, the latest of which saw the council shortened to a group of 7 members, however, the leader was selected among this group, not by villagers.
Under the jurisdiction of State of Vietnam and South Vietnam, xã was the lowest administrative unit under quáºÂn (district). Xã existed in almost all urban and rural places in South Vietnam with the exception of Saigon. For example, the city centre of Vénh Long town lied in the area of xã Long Châu, Châu Thành district, Vénh Long province, despite it was a vibrant town centre.
Communes that reached a higher urbanisation status could be elevated to the status of thá» xã (literally 'urban commune') such as Rạch Giá, Biên Hòa, Nha Trang. In such case, the xã was recognised as an autonomous unit in the same level as a province or a centrally-governed city.
Politically, a xã was governed by a xã trðá»Âng, usually a government official assigned by the District head. The xã trðá»Âng was assisted by a há»Âi ÃÂá»Âng xã (commune council), made up of a sheriff, treasurer, administrative official and home affairs official.
In 1957, South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem launched a counter-insurgency project known as Strategic Hamlet Program, in order to isolate the rural Vietnamese from contact with and influence by the communist National Liberation Front (NLF). A number of "fortified villages", called "joint families" (), were created throughout South Vietnam, consisting of villages that had been consolidated and reshaped to create a defensible perimeter. The peasants themselves would be given weapons and trained in self-defense. Several problemsâÂÂincluding corruption, unnecessary amounts of forced relocation and poor executionâÂÂcaused the program to backfire drastically, decrease support for Diem's regime and increase sympathy for Communist efforts.
After reunifying the country, xã remains the lowest administratrive unit in Vietnam. It continues to be the name of the lowest administrative unit in a rural district as well as the rural outskirts of larger provincial towns and cities.