Niger Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...

is divided into seven regions (French: ''régions;'' singular''région)'', each of which is named after its capital. Additionally, the national capital,

Niamey Niamey () is the capital and largest city of Niger. As the Niamey Urban Community (, CUN), it is a Regions of Niger, first-level division of Niger, surrounded by the Tillabéri Region, in the western part of the country. Niamey lies on the Nige ...

, comprises a capital district.

Current regions

*capital district.

Current administrative structure

Each of Niger's regions are subdivided into departments and communes. As of 2005, there were 36 ''départements'', divided into 265 communes, 122 cantons and 81 ''groupements''. The latter two categories cover all areas not covered by urban communes (population over 10000) or rural communes (total population 13 million), and are governed by the department, whereas communes have had elected councils and mayors since 1999. Additional semi-autonomous subdivisions include sultanates, provinces and tributaries (''tribus''). The Nigerien government estimates there are an additional 17000 villages administered by rural communes, while there are a number of ''quartiers'' (

boroughs A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

or neighborhoods) administered by urban communes.

Restructuring

Prior to the devolution program of 1999–2006, the regions were styled as departments. The current departments used to be called

arrondissement An arrondissement (, , ) is any of various administrative divisions of France, Belgium, Haiti, and certain other Francophone countries, as well as the Netherlands. Europe France The 101 French departments are divided into 342 ''arrondissem ...

s.]

1992 division

The department of Tillabéri was created in 1992, when

Region (then called "department") was split, with the areas immediately outside Niamey renamed as the ''capital district''.According t
Statoids
: "~1992: Tillabéry Region/department split from Niamey (whose FIPS code was NG05 before the change). Status of Niamey changed from department to capital district."

Historical evolution

Prior to independence, Niger was divided into sixteen '' Cercle (French colonial), cercles'' as second-level administrative divisions: Agadez, Birni N'Konni, Dogondoutchi, Dosso, Filingué, Gouré, Madaoua, Magaria, Maradi, N'Guigmi, Niamey, Tahoua, Téra, Tessaoua, Tillabéry, and Zinder. Their capitals had the same names as the ''cercle''. After independence, the ''31 December 1961 Law of territorial organization'' created 31 ''circonscriptions''. The 16 colonial ''cercles'' continued to exist, and served as a level of division above these ''circonscriptions''. Four ''cercles'' (Dogondoutchi, Filingué, N'Guigmi, and Téra) had only one ''circonscription''. The ''Law of August 14, 1964'' then reorganized the country into seven departments, adopting the French second-level administration naming system, in contrast to neighbor

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

, which retained the colonial '' cercles'' and regions.

References

{{Articles on first-level administrative divisions of African countries Subdivisions of Niger Regions, Niger Niger 1 Geography of Niger