The

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

is divided into thirty-one (

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

s; singular ), while the national capital,

Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...

, is contained within its own

Distrito Nacional The Distrito Nacional (; D.N.) is a subdivision of the Dominican Republic enclosing the capital Santo Domingo. It is not in any of the provinces, but in practice, it acts as a province on its own. Before October 16, 2001, the Distrito Nacional wa ...

("National District"; "D.N." on the map below). The division of the country into provinces is laid down in the constitution (Title I, Section II, Article 5) and enacted by law. The latter is currently Law 5220 on the Territorial Division of the Dominican Republic (), 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 Administrative divisions (also administrative units, administrative regions, subnational entities, or constituent states, as well as many similar generic terms) are geographical areas into which a particular independent sovereign state is divi ...

s 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 () for each province but not for the Distrito Nacional (Title IX of the constitution). The provinces are divided into

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

(), which are the second–level political and administrative subdivisions of the country. The

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 Santo Domingo () is a province of the Dominican Republic. It was split from the Distrito Nacional on October 16, 2001. Municipalities and municipal districts As of June 20, 2006, the province is divided into the following municipalities (''mu ...

, 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,

, the city council () and mayor () which are in charge of its administration.

The provinces as constituencies

The provinces are also constituencies for the elections to the

bicameral Bicameralism is a type of legislature that is divided into two separate Deliberative assembly, assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate ...

National Congress (). Each province elects one member of the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

() and a guaranteed minimum of two members of the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

().

Statistics

The following is a table of the provinces and their capital cities. The population figures are from the 2021 population estimate.

Map

References

External links

*
Oficina Nacional de Estadística (National Statistics Office)
Official statistics portal of the Dominican Republic. *
Blog of the Dominican Republic, videos, news, culture and music
{{Dominican Republic topics Subdivisions of the Dominican Republic Dominican Republic, Provinces Dominican Republic 1 Provinces, Dominican Republic Dominican Republic geography-related lists

The provinces as administrative divisions

The provinces as constituencies

Statistics

Map

See also

References

External links