Dominican Republic
This article is part of the series: Politics of the Dominican Republic
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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.

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	.2,531.77	.208,857	.82	1
Bahoruco	Neyba	.1,282.23	.91,480	.71	2
Barahona	Santa Cruz de Barahona	.1,739.38	.179,239	.103	3
Dajabón	Dajabón	.1,020.73	.62,046	.61	4
Distrito Nacional	Santo Domingo De Guzman	.104.44	.913,540	.8,747	D.N.
Duarte	San Francisco de Macorís	.1,605.35	.283,805	.177	5
Elías Piña	Comendador	.1,426.20	.63,879	.45	6
El Seibo	Santa Cruz del Seibo	.1,786.80	.89,261	.50	7
Espaillat	Moca	.838.62	.225,091	.268	8
Hato Mayor	Hato Mayor del Rey	.1,329.29	.87,631	.66	9
Independencia	Jimaní	.2,006.44	.50,833	.25	10
La Altagracia	Salvaleón de Higüey	.3,010.34	.182,020	.60	11
La Romana	La Romana	.653.95	.219,812	.336	12
La Vega	Concepción de la Vega	.2,287.24	.385,101	.168	13
María Trinidad Sánchez	Nagua	.1,271.71	.135,727	.107	14
Monseñor Nouel	Bonao	.992.39	.167,618	.169	15
Monte Cristi	San Fernando de Monte Cristi	.1,924.35	.111,014	.58	16
Monte Plata	Monte Plata	.2,632.14	.180,376	.69	17
Pedernales	Pedernales	.2,074.53	.21,207	.10	18
Peravia	Baní	.792.33	.169,865	.214	19
Puerto Plata	San Felipe de Puerto Plata	.1,852.90	.312,706	.168	20
Salcedo	Salcedo	.440.43	.96,356	.219	21
Samaná	Santa Bárbara de Samaná	.853.74	.91,875	.108	22
Sánchez Ramírez	Cotuí	.1,196.13	.151,179	.126	23
San Cristóbal	San Cristóbal	.1,265.77	.532,880	.421	24
San José de Ocoa	San José de Ocoa	.855.40	.62,368	.73	25
San Juan	San Juan de la Maguana	.3,569.39	.241,105	.68	26
San Pedro de Macorís	San Pedro de Macorís	.1,255.46	.301,744	.240	27
Santiago Province	Santiago de los Caballeros	.2,836.51	.908,250	.320	28
Santiago Rodríguez	San Ignacio de Sabaneta	.1,111.14	.59,629	.54	29
Santo Domingo	Santo Domingo Este	.1,296.35	.1,817,754	.1,402	30
Valverde	Mao	.823.38	.158,293	.192	31
Total		.48,666.83	.8,562,541	.176	-

Map

References

External links

• Political Database of the Americas - Dominican 2002 Constitution
• Oficina Nacional de Estadística, Statistics Portal of the Dominican Republic

•  • [ e] Provinces of the Dominican Republic
zua Baoruco Barahona Dajabn Distrito Nacional Duarte Elas Pia El Seibo Espaillat Hato Mayor Independencia La Altagracia La Romana La Vega Mara Trinidad Snchez Monseor Nouel Monte Cristi Monte Plata Pedernales Peravia Puerto Plata Salcedo Saman Snchez Ramrez San Cristbal San Jos de Ocoa San Juan San Pedro de Macors Santiago Santiago Rodrguez Santo Domingo Valverde

•  • [ e] First-level administrative divisions of North America
Antigua and Barbuda Bahamas Barbados Belize Canada Costa Rica Cuba Dominica Dominican Republic El Salvador Grenada Guatemala Haiti Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Panama* Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Trinidad and Tobago* United States * Territories also in or commonly reckoned elsewhere in the Americas (South America).