District-level town (Vietnam)

The district-level town or town (Vietnamese: Thị xã Chữ nôm:市社) is a kind of second level administrative unit in Vietnam, under the governance of the province or the centrally-controlled municipality. District-level towns are officially classified as Class III or Class IV urban areas by the Vietnam government. In July 2010, Vietnam has 45 district-level towns. A district-level town may be a capital of a province, but cannot be a capital of a municipality.

In Vietnam, there are other kinds of district-level urban subdivisiona: urban districts (Vietnamese: quận), districts and provincial cities. The urban districts is within urban and only consists of wards, but provincial cities and towns can consist of the wards (within urban) and communes (within suburban). Towns are similar with provincial cities, but towns are smaller than provincial cities in population density. Moreover, municipality can include town (Sơn Tây (Hanoi)), but can not include provincial cities.

The type town is categorized as urban and its residents is classified as urban population, although there may still be a part of residents living in agriculture. Main economical activities in town included industry, services and business.

Regularly, a commune-level town or township (Vietnamese: thị trấn) can be upgraded to a district-level town or town (Vietnamese: thị xã), and district-level towns can develop into provincial cities.

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