Ho Chi Minh City currently has 22 district-level administrative units, including: 16 districts, Thu Duc City and 5 districts.
The total number of commune-level administrative units before the reorganization is 273, including 210 wards, 58 communes and 5 towns.
Currently, Binh Hung Hoa A ward (Binh Tan district) is the most populous ward in Ho Chi Minh City with more than 125,000 people.
Meanwhile, Vinh Loc A commune (Binh Chanh district) is the most populous commune with more than 160,000 people.
However, after the upcoming merger, those figures will be far exceeded by two wards and communes, Ba Diem and Hiep Binh - each locality has nearly 200,000 people.
According to the plan to arrange commune-level administrative units approved by the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee and the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council, the city will make adjustments to 272 out of a total of 273 existing units. Notably, only Thanh An island commune (Can Gio district) is kept intact.
After the arrangement, Ho Chi Minh City will have 102 commune-level administrative units, including 78 wards and 24 communes.
In Hoc Mon district, 11 communes and towns will now be merged, leaving only 4 communes after the arrangement.
In which, the new Ba Diem commune was established on the basis of merging three communes: Ba Diem, Xuan Thoi Thuong and Trung Chanh. The new locality has an area of 27.36 km2 and a population of 192,230 people, becoming the most populous commune in Ho Chi Minh City.
Along with that, Thu Duc City - which has up to 34 existing wards, will merge to form 12 new wards.
Notable among these is Hiep Binh ward, established from three wards: Hiep Binh Chanh, Hiep Binh Phuoc and part of Linh Dong ward.
After the merger, Hiep Binh ward has an area of 16.01 km2 and a population of 191,878 people. This will be the most populous ward in Ho Chi Minh City after the arrangement.
Ho Chi Minh City aims to complete the project to merge commune-level administrative units and send it to the Central Government before May 1, 2025.
The arrangement and reorganization of commune-level units must be completed before June 30, 2025.
By July 1, 2025, the system of Party committees, authorities, the Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations at the district level will officially end operations according to the old administrative unit.
Before July 15, 2025, Ho Chi Minh City will complete the arrangement and assignment of cadres, civil servants, public employees, working headquarters, equipment and operating conditions of the new apparatus.
In June 2025, Ho Chi Minh City will submit to the Standing Committee of the City Party Committee a plan to organize a commune-level party congress for the 2025-2030 term and complete the commune-level congress before August 15, 2025.
