The Socialist Republic of Việt Nam is located on the eastern rim of the Indochina pensinsula in the South East Asian intertropical monsoon zone.

The country is 1,650 kilometres long from north to south and comprises a total land area of over 330,000 square kilometres, with a coastline of 3,260 kilometres and an inland border area of 3,730 kilometres. Its width ranges from 600 kilometres in the north and 400 kilometres in the south to just 50 kilometres at its narrowest point on the north central coast.

More than three quarters of Việt Nam's territory comprises mountains and hills. Four distinct mountainous zones may be identified - the Tây Bắc (north west), the Đông Bắc or Việt Bắc (north east), the northern Trường Sơn zone in north-central Việt Nam and the southern Trường Sơn zone in the south-central region. The country has two major river deltas - the Red River Delta (Đồng bằng Châu thổ Sông Hồng) in the north and the Mekong Delta (Đồng bằng Châu thổ Sông Cửu Long) in the south.

Việt Nam is bordered to the north by China, to the west by Laos and Cambodia and to the east by the Pacific Ocean.