Vietnam (Vietnamese: Việt Nam, [vîət nāːm] (About this soundlisten)), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,[a] is a country in Southeast Asia. It is located at the eastern edge of the Indochinese Peninsula, and is divided into 58 provinces and five municipalities, covering 331,699 square kilometres, with a population of over 96 million inhabitants, making it the world's sixteenth-most populous country. Vietnam shares borders with China to the north, Laos and Cambodia to the west; whilst maintaining maritime borders with Thailand through the Gulf of Thailand, and the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia through the South China Sea.[n 5] Its capital is Hanoi and its largest city is Ho C...