Provinces of the Dominican Republic

File:Mapa Republica Dominicana.tif

Provinces of the Dominican Republic map.

The Dominican Republic is divided into 31 provinces (Template:Lang), while the national capital, Santo Domingo, is contained within its own district.

The division of the country into provinces is laid down in the constitution (Title I, Section II, Article 5)<ref name="Constitution">Template:Cite web</ref> and enacted by law. The latter is currently Law 5220 on the Territorial Division of the Dominican Republic (Template:Lang), issued 1959 and frequently amended to create new provinces and lower-level administrative units.

The provinces as administrative divisions

The provinces are the first-level administrative subdivisions of the country. The headquarters of the central government's regional offices are normally found in the capital cities of provinces. The president appoints an administrative governor (Template:Lang) for each province but not for the Distrito Nacional (Title IX of the constitution).<ref name="Constitution"/>

The provinces are divided into municipalities (Template:Lang), which are the second–level political and administrative subdivisions of the country.<ref name="Constitution"/>

The Distrito Nacional was created in 1936. Prior to this, the Distrito Nacional was the old Santo Domingo Province, in existence since the country's independence in 1844. It is not to be confused with the new Santo Domingo Province, which split off from it in 2001. While it is similar to a province in many ways, the Distrito Nacional differs in its lack of an administrative governor and consisting only of one municipality, Santo Domingo, the city council (Template:Lang) and mayor (Template:Lang) which are in charge of its administration.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The provinces as constituencies

The provinces are also constituencies for the elections to the bicameral National Congress (Template:Lang). Each province elects one member of the Senate (Template:Lang) and a guaranteed minimum of two members of the Chamber of Deputies (Template:Lang).<ref name="Constitution"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Statistics

The following is a table of the provinces and their capital cities. The population figures are from the 2021 population estimate.<ref name=censusvol1>Template:Cite web</ref>

Coat Of Arms	Province National District	Capital	Region	Department	Area (km2)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>	Population 2021<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>	Density	Map	Establishment year
File:Escudo de la provincia de Azua de Compostela.jpg	Azua	Template:Center	South	Valdesia	2,531.77	222,610	86.59	File:Azua in Dominican Republic.svg	1844
	Baoruco	Template:Center	South	Enriquillo	1,282.23	101,306	77.40	File:Baoruco in Dominican Republic.svg	1943
	Barahona	Template:Center	South	Enriquillo	1,739.38	189,100	108.49	File:Barahona in Dominican Republic.svg	1881
	Dajabón	Template:Center	Cibao	Cibao Noroeste	1,020.73	66,675	63.95	File:Dajabon in Dominican Republic.svg	1938
	Duarte	Template:Center	Cibao	Cibao Nordeste	1,605.35	299,583	183.70	File:Duarte in Dominican Republic.svg	1896
	El Seibo	Template:Center	East	Yuma	1,786.80	94,049	63.58	File:El Seibo in Dominican Republic.svg	1844
	Elías Piña	Template:Center	South	El Valle	1,426.20	63,303	35.51	File:Elias Pina in Dominican Republic.svg	1942
	Espaillat	Template:Center	Cibao	Cibao Norte	838.62	240,428	281.97	File:Espaillat in Dominican Republic.svg	1885
	Hato Mayor	Template:Center	East	Higuamo	1,329.29	85,747	64.37	File:Hato Mayor in Dominican Republic.svg	1984
	Hermanas Mirabal	Template:Center	Cibao	Cibao Nordeste	440.43	92,045	209.78	File:Hermanas Mirabal in Dominican Republic.svg	1952
	Independencia	Template:Center	South	Enriquillo	2,006.44	58,951	27.73	File:Independencia in Dominican Republic.svg	1948
	La Altagracia	Template:Center	East	Yuma	3,010.34	360,874	104.61	File:La Altagracia in Dominican Republic.svg	1944
	La Romana	Template:Center	East	Yuma	653.95	274,894	397.59	File:La Romana in Dominican Republic.svg	1944
	La Vega	Template:Center	Cibao	Cibao Sur	2,287.24	412,469	176.64	File:La Vega in Dominican Republic.svg	1844
	María Trinidad Sánchez	Template:Center	Cibao	Cibao Nordeste	1,271.71	140,954	111.17	File:Maria Trinidad Sanchez in Dominican Republic.svg	1959
	Monseñor Nouel	Template:Center	Cibao	Cibao Sur	992.39	174,959	171.51	File:Monsenor Nouel in Dominican Republic.svg	1991
	Monte Cristi	Template:Center	Cibao	Cibao Noroeste	1,924.35	117,736	59.22	File:Monte Cristi in Dominican Republic.svg	1879
	Monte Plata	Template:Center	East	Higuamo	2,632.14	191,447	71.68	File:Monte Plata in Dominican Republic.svg	1991
	Pedernales	Template:Center	South	Enriquillo	2,074.53	35,280	16.12	File:Pedernales in Dominican Republic.svg	1957
	Peravia	Template:Center	South	Valdesia	792.33	198,499	241.62	File:Peravia in Dominican Republic.svg	1944
	Puerto Plata	Template:Center	Cibao	Cibao Norte	1,852.90	333,940	177.29	File:Puerto Plata in Dominican Republic.svg	1850
	Samaná	Template:Center	Cibao	Cibao Nordeste	853.74	113,036	125.62	File:Samana in Dominican Republic.svg	1867
	San Cristóbal	Template:Center	South	Valdesia	1,265.77	643,595	505.93	File:San Cristobal in Dominican Republic.svg	1932
	San José de Ocoa	Template:Center	South	Valdesia	855.4	53,833	45.11	File:San Jose de Ocoa in Dominican Republic.svg	2000
	San Juan	Template:Center	South	El Valle	3,569.39	220,264	266.12	File:San Juan in Dominican Republic.svg	1938
File:Escudo de San Pedro de Macoris (En cuadrilongo).svg	San Pedro de Macorís	Template:Center	East	Higuamo	1,255.46	306,002	83.66	File:San Pedro de Macoris in Dominican Republic.svg	1907
	Sánchez Ramírez	Template:Center	Cibao	Cibao Sur	1,196.13	151,888	121.09	File:Sanchez Ramirez in Dominican Republic.svg	1952
	Santiago	Template:Center	Cibao	Cibao Norte	2,836.51	1,052,088	355.30	File:Santiago in Dominican Republic.svg	1844
	Santiago Rodríguez	Template:Center	Cibao	Cibao Noroeste	1,111.14	57,209	51.71	File:Santiago Rodriguez in Dominican Republic.svg	1948
	Santo Domingo	Template:Center	South	Ozama	1,301.84	2,955,339	2036.08	File:Santo Domingo in Dominican Republic.svg	2001
File:Escudo del Municipio Mao.svg	Valverde	Template:Center	Cibao	Cibao Noroeste	823.38	177,865	207.06	File:Valverde in Dominican Republic.svg	1959
File:Escudo del Municipio Santo Domingo.svg	Distrito Nacional	Template:Center	East	Ozama	104.44	1,049,567	9,651.45	File:Distrito Nacional in Dominican Republic (special marker).svg	1932

See also

• Geography of the Dominican Republic
• Demographics of Dominican Republic
• ISO 3166-2:DO

External links

• Template:In lang Oficina Nacional de Estadística (National Statistics Office). Official statistics portal of the Dominican Republic.
• Template:In lang Blog of the Dominican Republic, videos, news, culture and music