Discover

The Dominican Republic is divided into thirty-one ''provincias'' (provinces; singular ''provincia''), while the national capital, Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is contained within its own Distrito Nacional ("national district"; "D.N." on the map below).
The division of the country into provinces is laid down in the constitution (Titulo I Seccion II Art. 5 2002 constitution)^[1] and enacted by law. Currently by law 5220 about the territorial division of the Dominican Republic (''Ley No. 5220 sobre División Territorial de la República Dominicana'') issued 1959 and frequently amended to create new provinces and lower level administrative units.

Contents

The provinces as administrative divisions

The provinces as constituencies

Statistics

Map

References

External links

The provinces as administrative divisions

The provinces are the first-level administrative subdivision of the country. The headquarters of the central governments regional offices are normally in the capital city of a province. The president appoints an administrative governor (''Gobernador Civil'') for each province but not for the Distrito Nacional (Titulo IX 2002 constitution).^[1]
The provinces are divided into municipalities (''municipios'') which are the second level political and administrative subdivisions of the country (Titulo I Seccion II Art. 5 2002 constitution).^[1]
The Distrito Nacional was created in 1936. Prior to this creation the Distrito National was the old Santo Domingo province, not to be confused with the new Santo Domingo province split from it in 2001, existing since the country's independence in 1844. While it is similar to a province in many ways it differs in not having an administrative governor and consisting only of one municipality, Santo Domingo, the city council (''ayuntamiento'') and mayor (''Síndico'') of which are in charge of its administration.^[4]

The provinces as constituencies

The provinces are also constituencies for the elections to the bicameral National Congress (''Congreso de la República''). Each electing one member of the Senate (''Senado'') and members of the Chamber of Deputies (''Cámara de Diputados'') with one deputy per 50,000 inhabitants or fraction in excess of 25,000, and a guaranteed minimum of two per province (Titulo IV 2002 constitution).^{[1] [6]}

Statistics

The following is a table of the provinces and their capital cities.^[7] Population figures in the following table are from the 2002 census.^[8]

Province	Capital	Area (km²)[9]	Population	Density[9]	Map
Ázua	Ázua de Compostela	2531.77	208857	82	1
Bahoruco	Neyba	1282.23	91480	71	2
Barahona	Santa Cruz de Barahona	1739.38	179239	103	3
Dajabón	Dajabón	1020.73	62046	61	4
Distrito Nacional	Santo Domingo De Guzman	104.44	913540	8747	D.N.
Duarte	San Francisco de Macorís	1605.35	283805	177	5
Elías Piña	Comendador	1426.20	63879	45	6
El Seibo	Santa Cruz del Seibo	1786.80	89261	50	7
Espaillat	Moca	838.62	225091	268	8
Hato Mayor	Hato Mayor del Rey	1329.29	87631	66	9
Independencia	Jimaní	2006.44	50833	25	10
La Altagracia	Salvaleón de Higüey	3010.34	182020	60	11
La Romana	La Romana	653.95	219812	336	12
La Vega	Concepción de la Vega	2287.24	385101	168	13
María Trinidad Sánchez	Nagua	1271.71	135727	107	14
Monseñor Nouel	Bonao	992.39	167618	169	15
Monte Cristi	San Fernando de Monte Cristi	1924.35	111014	58	16
Monte Plata	Monte Plata	2632.14	180376	69	17
Pedernales	Pedernales	2074.53	21207	10	18
Peravia	Baní	792.33	169865	214	19
Puerto Plata	San Felipe de Puerto Plata	1852.90	312706	168	20
Salcedo	Salcedo	440.43	96356	219	21
Samaná	Santa Bárbara de Samaná	853.74	91875	108	22
Sánchez Ramírez	Cotuí	1196.13	151179	126	23
San Cristóbal	San Cristóbal	1265.77	532880	421	24
San José de Ocoa	San José de Ocoa	855.40	62368	73	25
San Juan	San Juan de la Maguana	3569.39	241105	68	26
San Pedro de Macorís	San Pedro de Macorís	1255.46	301744	240	27
Santiago Province	Santiago de los Caballeros	2836.51	908250	320	28
Santiago Rodríguez	San Ignacio de Sabaneta	1111.14	59629	54	29
Santo Domingo	Santo Domingo Este	1296.35	1817754	1402	30
Valverde	Mao	823.38	158293	192	31
'Total'		48666.83	8562541	176	-

Map

References

1. CONSTITUCION POLITICA DE LA REPBULICA DOMINICANA DE 2002 Asamblea Nacional
2. CONSTITUCION POLITICA DE LA REPBULICA DOMINICANA DE 2002 Asamblea Nacional
3. CONSTITUCION POLITICA DE LA REPBULICA DOMINICANA DE 2002 Asamblea Nacional
4. Ley No. 163-01 que crea la provincia de Santo Domingo, y modifica los Artículos 1 y 2 de la Ley No. 5220, sobre División Territorial de la República Dominicana. EL CONGRESO NACIONAL
5. CONSTITUCION POLITICA DE LA REPBULICA DOMINICANA DE 2002 Asamblea Nacional
6. Ley Electoral, No. 275-97 EL CONGRESO NACIONAL
7. Provinces of the Dominican Republic Gwillim Law - Statoids
8. VIII Censo 2002 Poplación y Vivienda Oficina Nacional de Estadística
9. República Dominicana en Cifras 2006 Oficina Nacional de Estadística
10. República Dominicana en Cifras 2006 Oficina Nacional de Estadística

External links

★ Political Database of the Americas - Dominican 2002 Constitution

★ Oficina Nacional de Estadística, Statistics Portal of the Dominican Republic