Ho Chi Minh City tripled, and “Saigon” came back
Since July 2025, Ho Chi Minh City absorbed Bình Dương and Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu. And one ward officially carries the name Sài Gòn again.
This sheet is not a travel story. It gathers what official sources say, and stops where they stop.
Two whole provinces were absorbed into the city. And the name everyone used without it existing administratively — Sài Gòn — designates an official place again.
01What changed
The 2025 reform takes Vietnam from 63 provinces and cities to 34. Ho Chi Minh City absorbs the provinces of Bình Dương and Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu, and keeps its name.
On 16 June 2025, Resolution 1685/NQ-UBTVQH15 of the National Assembly Standing Committee reorganised the commune-level units of the new city.
After reorganisation it has 168 commune-level units: 113 wards, 54 communes and one special zone, Côn Đảo.
02The return of the name Sài Gòn
Among the new wards is one named Sài Gòn. The name had held no administrative value since 1976; it lived in speech, in everyday addresses and on plane tickets, without designating an official unit.
It designates one again. That is an administrative fact, not a symbol this sheet interprets.
03What it changes in practice
Vũng Tàu and its beaches, Thủ Dầu Một and its industrial zones now sit in the same city as District 1. A journey sold as crossing provinces no longer does.
The numbered districts — District 1, District 3, District 7 — belonged to a tier abolished nationwide. Addresses naming them are still understood; administrative forms expect a ward.
04How to check it yourself
The text of Resolution 1685/NQ-UBTVQH15 is published in English on the Vietnamese legal databases. It lists all 168 units, one by one.
The area of 6,772 km² and population of 13.7 million are reported by the Vietnamese press. They were not confirmed with a government source on the verification date.
05If your documents predate July 2025
An address reading “District 1, Ho Chi Minh City” names a real place through a tier that no longer exists. It is still understood locally.
An address naming Bình Dương or Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu province refers to territory that still exists, under a different attachment.
06The principle behind the reform
The district tier is abolished nationwide. Only the province or city remains, then the commune or the ward. Commune-level units drop from 10,035 to 3,321.
07What this sheet does not say
Where to sleep, where to eat, which ward to visit, what a ride costs. None of that has an official source, and this sheet does not invent it.
Nobody here has been. This sheet says what can be checked, not what can be felt.