Intangible cultural heritage — national and provincial figures
Public data on Vietnam's intangible cultural heritage: national totals plus a breakdown for five provinces and cities. The page states its sources, reference dates, and the points where public data falls short.
~70.000
Items inventoried nationwide
722
On the national list
17
Inscribed by UNESCO
1.750
People's and Meritorious Artisans
Source: Cục Di sản văn hóa (dẫn qua Tạp chí Văn hóa Nghệ thuật, tổng kết 2025) · as of cuối 2025
Two layers of data measuring different things
722
National list
Items with complete scientific dossiers, inscribed by ministerial decision. This is the figure to cite in official documents.
Up 102 items from 620 as of cuối 2024
~70.000
Inventoried
Items recorded by provinces during inventory campaigns, most without a dossier yet. This is where the data still sits scattered across departments, largely as inventory forms and spreadsheets.
The inventory layer is roughly 97 times the size of the national list
Read before using the provincial figures
No public source holds all 722 entries. Checked directly: the Department of Cultural Heritage's primary catalogue has 486 entries and its most recent decision is dated 08 May 2023 — nearly three years stale. The public compilation has 533. So roughly 236 entries inscribed in 2023–2026 cannot be named anywhere, not even at the managing authority.
Each locality therefore shows two separate figures: the number published by the province or Ministry, and the number of items whose names could be traced. The gap is shown as-is, not rounded to match.
All 34 units follow the new boundaries (Resolution 202/2025/QH15, effective 12 June 2025): 23 units merged from 52 former provinces and 11 left unchanged. Almost none publish a consolidated figure, so theirs are sums across the former provinces per the merger table.
Multi-province heritage such as Don ca tai tu or the Gong Culture of the Central Highlands is inscribed once for several localities. Summing by province counts it more than once, so each locality shows both the raw total and the distinct count.
The base is the Department's primary catalogue: 533 of 599 assignments carry a traceable decision number. Only five localities were carried forward to 2026; the remaining 29 stop at 08 May 2023 — each block is labelled accordingly.
Listing 603 items across 34 localities
Distribution across the seven categories
As of 01/2018, 249 items — the most recent full breakdown published. The proportions remain indicative, but the absolute numbers are well out of date.
Lễ hội truyền thống
93
Nghệ thuật trình diễn dân gian
60
Tập quán xã hội và tín ngưỡng
59
Nghề thủ công truyền thống
23
Tri thức dân gian
5
Tiếng nói, chữ viết
5
Ngữ văn dân gian
4
Sources
National figures: Department of Cultural Heritage, via the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism annual heritage reviews for 2024 and 2025.
Published provincial figures: provincial portals, provincial Departments of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and Ministry announcements.
Individual names and inscription years: the compiled national list, cross-checked against inscription decisions from 2024 to 2026.
Primary catalogue: Department of Cultural Heritage — dsvh.gov.vn.
This page compiles publicly available information. It is not an official document and does not replace the catalogue maintained by the Department of Cultural Heritage. Verify against the primary catalogue before citing in dossiers, budget estimates, or correspondence with state agencies.
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