page_title: Hanoi
section_title: Administrative divisions
hierarchical_section_title: Hanoi / Administrative divisions
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of Hanoi at the end of 2008 Tiếng Việt: Bản đồ Hà Nội cuối năm 2008
context_page_description: Hanoi is the capital city of Vietnam. It covers an area of 3,358.6 square kilometres. It is the second largest city in Vietnam, with over eight million residents within city proper and an estimated population of 20 million within the metropolitan area. Located in the heart of the Red River Delta, Hanoi is the commercial, cultural, and educational centre of Northern Vietnam. Having an estimated nominal GDP of US$32.8 billion as of 2018, it is the second most productive economic area of Vietnam, after Ho Chi Minh City.
  The city was a small settlement along the banks of the Red River until 1010, when monarch Lý Thái Tổ founded the city as the capital of Imperial Vietnam, naming it Thăng Long. Thăng Long would remain the most important political and cultural centre of Vietnam until 1802, when the Nguyễn dynasty, the last imperial dynasty of Vietnam, moved the capital to Huế. The city renamed to Hanoi in 1831, and was the capital of French Indochina from 1883 to 1945 during French colonisation of the Indochina Peninsula.
context_section_description: Hà Nội is divided into 12 urban districts, 1 district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. When Hà Tây was merged into Hanoi in 2008, Hà Đông was transformed into an urban district while Sơn Tây degraded to a district-leveled town. They are further subdivided into 22 commune-level towns (or townlets), 399 communes, and 145 wards.
caption: Administrative divisions of Hanoi
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