Gia Định (嘉定) was a province of

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam (RVN; , VNCH), was a country in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975. It first garnered Diplomatic recognition, international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam within the ...

surrounding

Sài Gòn Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025. The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...

. It was one of the country's main industrial centers.

Đặng Phong Đặng Phong (1937–2010) was a Vietnamese economic historian. Born in Hà Tây Province, Đặng Phong graduated from Hanoi University in 1960 then National Economics University in 1964. He then worked as researcher at Vietnam Institute of ...

(2004), Kinh tế Miền Nam Việt nam thời kỳ 1955 - 1975, Nhà xuất bản Khoa học xã hội, Hanoi, page 299 Gia Định was created in 1832 and split to four smaller provinces in December 1889: Gia Định,

Chợ Lớn Chợ Lớn (, zh, 堤岸), usually anglicized as "Cholon" in English sources, is a quarter of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It lies on the west bank of the Saigon River, having Bình Tây Market as its central market. Chợ Lớn consists of the ...

Tân An Tân An is the capital city of Long An Province in Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. It was upgraded from town status to city status on 26 August 2009. The population of Tân An is 165,214 as of 2009, with an area of 81.79 km2. It comprises ...

and

Tây Ninh Tây Ninh () is a provincial city in Southeastern Vietnam. It is the capital of Tây Ninh Province, which encompasses the town and much of the surrounding farmland. Tây Ninh is one of nine provinces and cities in the ''Southern Key Economic R ...

. In 1957 Gia Định contained 6 districts, Gò Vấp, Tân Bình,

Hóc Môn Hóc Môn is a township () and capital of Hóc Môn District, Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025. Th ...

Thủ Đức Thủ Đức ʰu˨˩˦:ɗɨk˧˥is a sub-municipality in Ho Chi Minh City of the Southestern region of Vietnam. History The oldest name what was recorded in this area was Ngãi An (義安), a district-level administrative unit has existed sin ...

Nhà Bè Nhà Bè is a township () of Nhà Bè District, Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025. The city's geogr ...

and Bình Chánh. In 1970, the districts of

Quảng Xuyên Quảng Xuyên is former district of South Vietnam. It was established on January 29, 1959, and included communes Bình Khánh, An Thới Đông, Tam Thôn Hiệp and Lý Nhơn. On September 9, 1960, South Vietnam government transferred the dist ...

and Cần Giờ were added.In February 1976, parts of the provinces of

Biên Hòa Biên Hòa (Northern accent: , Southern accent: ) is the capital city of Đồng Nai Province, Vietnam, and is part of the Ho Chi Minh City metropolitan area. Situated northeast of Ho Chi Minh City (also known as Saigon), Biên Hòa is connect ...

, Bình Dương, Đô Thành Sài Gòn and Hậu Nghĩa were annexed to Gia Định and it was renamed to Sài Gòn-Gia Định. After the capture of Saigon on 30 April 1975, the province of Gia Định (initially without the estuary) and other areas of neighboring provinces (in particular the district of Củ Chi) were united with the city of Saigon in May. The city of Saigon-Gia Định (thành phố Sài Gòn – Gia Định) was created. This in turn was renamed Ho Chi Minh City (thành phố Hồ Chí Minh) on 2 July 1976.Former governors of the province include

Nguyễn Văn Thành Nguyễn Văn Thành (chữ Hán ( , ) are the Chinese characters that were used to write Literary Chinese in Vietnam, Literary Chinese (; ) and Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in Vietnamese language, Vietnamese. They were officially used in Vietnam ...

References

Provinces of South Vietnam Provinces of French Cochinchina History of Ho Chi Minh City {{HoChiMinhCity-geo-stub