Merging provinces in Southeast Asia

Vietnam provincial mergers of 2025

Vietnam is divided into 57 provinces and 6 centrally governed cities (municipalities). The government is currently planning to merge provinces, bringing the total number to 34. A province in Vietnam is similar to a US/Australian state or UK county, so this is a radical change that is about to happen.

Vietnam has many layers of bureaucracy, and this provincial plan coincides with a plan to remove district-level governments.

Here is what the province map by Wikimedia looks like as of April 2025. I am linking to the archived page of the Provinces of Vietnam, because this map will be out of date for future readers of this article.

The new province boundaries and names haven’t been decided yet, so I will do a separate article for that when that happens (in August 2025).

Other merger candidates in Southeast Asia

Vietnam is not the only country with a crazy amount of provinces. Thailand has 76 provinces and 1 special administrative area (Bangkok), and the Philippines has 82 Provinces and Metro Manila.

Here is the average population per province/administrative unit for each country:

Vietnam 

Population: 100,300,000 (2023 estimate)

Average population per province/administrative unit: 1,592,063 (Current 63)

Average population per province/administrative unit: 2,950,000 (New 34)

Thailand 

Population: 65,975,198 (2024 estimate)

Average population per province/administrative unit: 856,821

Philippines 

Population: 114,163,719 (2024 estimate)

Average population per province/administrative unit: 1,375,466

[Population estimates are via Wikipedia for illustrative purposes only.]

Even before the mergers, Vietnam was the leanest of the three countries. While the Philippines has a ridiculous number of provinces, it is far more populous than Thailand.

Indonesia is a good example of province sizes and names

Indonesia has 34 provinces and a population of 284,973,643 (2024 estimate). That works out to 8,381,578 people per province. This seems like a sensible number of provinces considering how geographically large Indonesia is.

An issue that Vietnam is working on is what to name the new provinces. There has been discussion on whether the new provinces should be named after the former larger province, a hyphenated name or the merged provinces, or a completely new name.

I like the simplicity of the Indonesian naming system, where the large islands are divided up into geographic names.

This could work in some parts of Vietnam. For example, there are currently 12 provinces and 1 municipality in the Mekong Delta. The Mekong provinces could become North Mekong Delta, South Mekong Delta, and Can Tho City.

This system works for large islands (like Java) or distinct regions (like the Mekong Delta). For regions like the South Central Coast region of Vietnam, this becomes too complicated. A province named the North South Central Coast is all over the compass.

Should other countries in Southeast Asia consider provincial mergers?

I have spent a lot of time travelling in Vietnam, and I am fascinated by the number of provinces. I made a map of the provinces to keep track of my travels and to make sure I visit new places.

I think it is sensible that the authorities are streamlining the provinces. Larger geographical provinces will have a better chance of branding themselves internationally, and a larger province can market their main city instead of trying to market multiple smaller cities.

So should Thailand and the Philippines follow Vietnam’s lead and merge provinces?