Departments of Colombia

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Capital district and Colombian regions Distrito Capital y los Departamentos de Colombia (Spanish)
Category	Unitary state
Location	Republic of Colombia
Number	32 Departments 1 Capital District
Populations	(Departments only):40,797 (Vaupés) – 6,407,102 (Antioquia)
Areas	(Departments only):50 km2 (19.3 sq mi) (San Andrés) – 109,665.0 km2 (42,341.89 sq mi) (Amazonas)
Government	Department government, National government
Subdivisions	Province, municipality

Politics of Colombia
Constitution Constitution of 1991 History
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Elections National Electoral Council Recent elections: Presidential: 2014 2018 2022 Legislative: 2014 2018 2022
Administrative divisions Departments Municipalities
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Colombia is a unitary republic made up of thirty-two departments (Spanish: departamentos, sing. departamento) and a Capital District (Distrito Capital).^[1] Each department has a governor (gobernador) and an Assembly (Asamblea Departamental), elected by popular vote for a four-year period. The governor cannot be re-elected in consecutive periods. Departments are country subdivisions and are granted a certain degree of autonomy.

Departments are formed by a grouping of municipalities (municipios, sing. municipio). Municipal government is headed by mayor (alcalde) and administered by a municipal council (concejo municipal), both of which are elected for four-year periods.

Some departments have subdivisions above the level of municipalities, commonly known as provinces.

Chart of departments[]

Each one of the departments of Colombia in the map below links to a corresponding article. Current governors serving four-year terms from 2015 to 2019 are also shown, along with their respective political party or coalition.

ID	Region	Governor	Party	Capital	Area (km²)	Population	Density per km2	Established	Flag	Code
00	Capital District	Claudia López Hernández	Green	Bogotá	1,587	7,412,566	4670.80	1538		DC
01	Amazonas	Jesús Galindo Cedeño	Coalición 'Juntos por el Amazonas'	Leticia	109,665	76,589	0.7	1991		AM
02	Antioquia	Aníbal Gaviria	Coalición 'Es el Momento de Antioquia'	Medellín	63,612	6,407,102	100.72	1826		AN
03	Arauca	José Facundo Castillo	Coalición 'Unidos por Arauca'	Arauca	23,818	262,174	11.01	1991		AR
04	Atlántico	Elsa Noguera	Coalición 'La Clave es la Gente'	Barranquilla	3,388	2,535,517	748.38	1910		AT
05	Bolívar	Vicente Antonio Blel	Conservative	Cartagena	25,978	2,070,110	79.69	1857		BL
06	Boyacá	Ramiro Barragán Adame	Green	Tunja	23,189	1,217,376	52.50	1539		BY
07	Caldas	Luis Carlos Velásquez	Coalición 'Unidos por Caldas'	Manizales	7,888	998,255	126.55	1905		CL
08	Caquetá	Arnulfo Gasca Trujillo	Conservative	Florencia	88,965	401,849	4.52	1982		CQ
09	Casanare	Salomón Andrés Sanabria	CD	Yopal	44,640	420,504	9.42	1991		CS
10	Cauca	Elías Larrahondo Carabalí	Coalición 'Porque Sí es Posible'	Popayán	29,308	1,464,488	49.97	1857		CA
11	Cesar	Luis Alberto Monsalvo Gnecco	Coalición 'Alianza por el Cesar'	Valledupar	22,905	1,200,574	52.42	1967		CE
12	Chocó	Ariel Palacios Calderón	Coalición 'Generando Confianza por un Mejor Chocó'	Quibdó	46,530	534,826	11.49	1947		CH
13	Córdoba	Orlando David Benítez	Liberal	Montería	25,020	1,784,783	71.33	1952		CO
14	Cundinamarca	Nicolás García Bustos	Coalición 'Gran Cundinamarca'	Bogotá	24,210	2,919,060	120.57	1857		CU
15	Guainía	Juan Carlos Iral Gómez	De La U	Inirida	72,238	48,114	0.67	1963		GN
16	Guaviare	Heydeer Yovanny Palacio	CR	San José del Guaviare	53,460	82,767	1.55	1991		GV
17	Huila	Luis Enrique Dussán	Coalición 'Huila Crece'	Neiva	19,890	1,100,386	55.32	1905		HU
18	La Guajira	Nemesio Roys Garzón	Coalición 'Un Cambio por La Guajira'	Riohacha	20,848	880,560	42.24	1965		LG
19	Magdalena	Carlos Caicedo	G.S.C. Fuerza Ciudadana - Magdalena	Santa Marta	23,188	1,341,746	57.86	1824		MA
20	Meta	Juan Guillermo Zuluaga	De La U	Villavicencio	85,635	1,039,722	12.14	1960		ME
21	Nariño	Jhon Alexander Rojas	Coalición 'Mi Nariño'	Pasto	33,268	1,630,592	49.01	1904		NA
22	Norte de Santander	Silvano Serrano Guerrero	Conservative	Cúcuta	21,658	1,491,689	68.87	1910		NS
23	Putumayo	Buanerges Rosero	Coalición 'Así es el Putumayo, Tierra de Paz'	Mocoa	24,885	348,182	13.99	1991		PU
24	Quindío	Roberto Jairo Jaramillo	Liberal	Armenia	1,845	539,904	292.63	1966		QD
25	Risaralda	Sigifredo Salazar Osorio	Conservative	Pereira	4,140	943,401	227.87	1966		RI
26	San Andrés y Providencia	Everth Julio Hawkins	Coalición 'Todos por un Nuevo Comienzo'	San Andrés	52	61,280	1178.46	1991		SA
27	Santander	Mauricio Aguilar	Coalición 'Siempre Santander'	Bucaramanga	30,537	2,184,837	71.55	1857		ST
28	Sucre	Héctor Olimpo Espinosa	Liberal	Sincelejo	10,917	904,863	82.89	1966		SU
29	Tolima	José Ricardo Orozco	Conservative	Ibagué	23,562	1,330,187	56.45	1886		TO
30	Valle del Cauca	Clara Luz Roldán	Coalición 'Todos por el Valle del Cauca'	Cali	22,140	4,475,886	202.16	1910		VC
31	Vaupés	Elícer Pérez	CD	Mitú	54,135	40,797	0.75	1991		VP
32	Vichada	Álvaro Arley León	Coalición 'Álvaro León Sabe Como Es'	Puerto Carreño	100,242	107,808	1.08	1991		VD

Indigenous territories[]

The indigenous territories are at the third level of administrative division in Colombia, as are the municipalities. Indigenous territories are created by agreement between the government and indigenous communities. In cases where indigenous territories cover more than one department or municipality, local governments jointly administer them with the indigenous councils, as set out in Articles 329 and 330 of the Colombian Constitution of 1991. Also indigenous territories may achieve local autonomy if they meet the requirements of the law.

Article 329 of the 1991 constitution recognizes the collective indigenous ownership of indigenous territories and repeats that are inalienable. Law 160 of 1994 created the National System of Agrarian Reform and Rural Development Campesino, and replaced Law 135 of 1961 on Agrarian Social Reform; it establishes and sets out the functions of INCORA, one of the most important being to declare which territories will acquire the status of indigenous protection and what extension of existing ones will be allowed. Decree 2164 of 1995 interprets Law 160 of 1994, providing, among other things, a legal definition of indigenous territories.^[2]

Indigenous territories in Colombia are mostly in the departments of Amazonas, Cauca, La Guajira, Guaviare, and Vaupés.^[1]

History[]

The Republic of Gran Colombia[]

When it was first established in 1819, The Republic of Gran Colombia had three departments. Venezuela, Cundinamarca (now Colombia) and Quito (now Ecuador).^[3] In 1824, the Distrito del Centro (which became Colombia) was divided into five departments and further divided into seventeen provinces. One department, Istmo Department, consisting of two provinces, later became Panama.^[4]

Republic of New Granada[]

With the dissolution of Gran Colombia in 1826 by the Revolution of the Morrocoyes (La Cosiata), New Granada kept its 17 provinces. In 1832 the provinces of Vélez and Barbacoas were created, and in 1835 those of Buenaventura and Pasto were added. In 1843 those of Cauca, Mompós and Túquerres were created. At this time the cantons (cantones) and parish districts were created, which provided the basis for the present-day municipalities.^[4][5]

By 1853 the number of provinces had increased to thirty-six, namely:Antioquia, Azuero, Barbacoas, Bogotá, Buenaventura, Cartagena, Casanare, Cauca, Chiriquí, Chocó, Córdova, Cundinamarca, García Rovira, Mariquita, Medellín, Mompós, Neiva, Ocaña, Pamplona, Panamá, Pasto, Popayán, Riohacha, Sabanilla, Santa Marta, Santander, Socorro, Soto, Tequendama, Tunja, Tundama, Túquerres, Valle de Upar, Veraguas, Vélez and Zipaquirá.^[5] However, the new constitution of 1853 introduced federalism, which lead to the consolidation of provinces into states. By 1858 this process was complete, with a resulting eight federal states: Panamá was formed in 1855, Antioquia in 1856, Santander in May 1857, and Bolívar, Boyacá, Cauca, Cundinamarca and Magdalena were formed in June 1858. 1861 saw the creation of the final federal state of Tolima.^[6]

Republic of Colombia[]

The Colombian Constitution of 1886 converted the states of Colombia into departments, with the state presidents renamed as governors. The states formed the following original departments:

• Antioquia Department
• Bolívar Department
• Boyacá Department
• Cauca Department
• Cundinamarca Department
• Magdalena Department
• Panamá Department
• Santander Department
• Tolima Department

Maps gallery[]

• 

  Departments of Colombia with municipalities

• 

  Map with numbered departments

• 

  Departments of Colombia with names

• 

  Political map of Colombia

• 

  Topography of Colombia, highly variable per department

See also[]

• ISO 3166-2:CO
• List of Colombian flags
• List of political and geographic subdivisions by total area
• States of Colombia
• List of Colombian departments by Human Development Index

References[]

External links[]

• (in French) List of Colombian department governors
• "Departments of Colombia". Statoids.