Southern Vietnam

This article is about the geographical region in Vietnam. For the former country, see South Vietnam.

Southern Vietnam (Vietnamese: Nam Bộ) is one of the three geographical regions of Vietnam, the other two being Northern and Central Vietnam. It includes 2 administrative regions, which in turn are divided into 19 First Tier units, of which 17 are provinces and 2 are municipalities. Known as Nam Bộ today in Vietnamese since 1975, it was historically called as Gia Định (1779–1832), Nam Kỳ (1832–1945, 1945-1949), Nam Bộ (1945), Bắc Việt (1949-1954), and Nam Phần (1954–1975).^[1] Cochinchina or "Nam Kỳ" is a historical exonym for this region, originating during the French colonial period.

The eight regions of Vietnam.

The origin of Southern Vietnam (Basse-Cochinchine in French, or Lower Cochinchina) was the Kingdom of Funan (from 1st century CE until 6th century CE) and Khmer Empire (from 8th century CE to 17th century). Southern Vietnam was conquered by the Nguyễn force in the 17th and 18th centuries from the Khmer kingdom.^[2]

The main ethnicities in Southern Vietnam are Kinh, Khmer and Hoa.^[3]

Administration

Administrative region	First Tier units	Area (km2)[4][5]	Population (2022)[4]	Population density (people/km2)
Southeast (Đông Nam Bộ, Miền Đông)	Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu Bình Dương Bình Phước Đồng Nai Ho Chi Minh City † Tây Ninh	23,551.42	18,810,780	798.71
Mekong River Delta (Đồng Bằng Sông Cửu Long) or Southwest (Tây Nam Bộ, Miền Tây)	An Giang Bến Tre Bạc Liêu Cà Mau Cần Thơ † Đồng Tháp Hậu Giang Kiên Giang Long An Sóc Trăng Tiền Giang Trà Vinh Vĩnh Long	40,922.58	17,432,120	425.98

^† Municipality (thành phố trực thuộc trung ương)

See also

• Northern, Central and Southern Vietnam
• Regions of Vietnam
• Six Provinces of Southern Vietnam or Lục Tỉnh
• Cochinchina – a historical exonym for South Vietnam
• Champa, ancient coastal states in modern Central and South Vietnam