States of Venezuela

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States, Federal Dependencies and Capital District Estados, Dependencias Federales y Distrito Capital (Spanish)
Category	Federated state
Location	Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
Number	23 states 1 Capital District
Populations	146,480 (Amazonas) – 3,704,404 (Zulia)
Areas	1,100 km2 (440 sq mi) (Nueva Esparta) – 240,000 km2 (92,000 sq mi) (Bolívar)
Government	State government
Subdivisions	Municipality Island (Federal Dependencies)

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The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is a federation made up of twenty-three states (Spanish: estados), a Capital District (Spanish: Distrito Capital) and the Federal Dependencies (Spanish: Dependencias Federales), which consist of many islands and islets on the Caribbean Sea.^[1] Venezuela also claims the Guayana Esequiba territory which comprises six districts in the independent nation of Guyana.

The states and territories of Venezuela are usually organized into regions (Spanish: regiones), although these regions are mostly geographical entities and count with no administrative entities.

Historical states[]

Prior to the Federal War (1859–1863), the country was divided into provinces rather than states (see Provinces of Venezuela). The victorious forces were supposed to grant more autonomy to the individual states, but this was not implemented.

From 1863 to the early 1900s there were numerous territorial changes, including the merger and splitting of states, but from then until the 1990s the states were left unchanged. States that existed during this time included Guzmán Blanco State (1873–1889). Originally a renamed Aragua State, in 1881 the states of Miranda, Guárico, Nueva Esparta and the Vargas department of the Federal District were merged into the state. This was part of a territorial reorganisation reducing the number of states from 20 to 9, which was reversed in 1901.

The 1990s saw the creation of three new states: Delta Amacuro (1991), Amazonas (1994), and Vargas (1998).

Regions[]

Venezuela's territory is generally divided into eight geographical regions, which are mostly used for geographical, cultural and planning purposes but count with no active administrative body.

States[]

Below is a list of the 23 states of Venezuela. The states are listed along with their correspondent emblems, data and location.

Flag	State	Capital	Largest city	Population (2011)	Area (km2)	Density per km2	Region	Map
	Amazonas	Puerto Ayacucho		146,480	180,145	0.81	Guayana
	Anzoátegui	Barcelona		1,469,747	43,300	33.94	Eastern
	Apure	San Fernando de Apure		459,025	76,500	6.00	Llanos
	Aragua	Maracay		1,630,308	7,014	232.44	Central
	Barinas	Barinas		816,264	35,200	23.19	Andean
	Bolívar	Ciudad Bolívar		1,410,964	238,000	5.93	Guayana
	Carabobo	Valencia		2,245,744	4,650	482.96	Central
	Cojedes	San Carlos		323,165	14,800	21.84	Central
	Delta Amacuro	Tucupita		167,676	40,200	4.17	Guayana
	Falcón	Coro	Punto Fijo	902,847	24,800	36.41	Central-Western
	Guárico	San Juan de Los Morros	Calabozo	747,739	64,986	11.51	Llanos
	La Guaira	La Guaira	Catia La Mar	352,920	1,496	235.91	Capital
	Lara	Barquisimeto		1,774,867	19,800	89.64	Central-Western
	Mérida	Mérida		828,592	11,300	73.33	Andean
	Miranda	Los Teques	Petare	2,675,165	7,950	336.50	Capital
	Monagas	Maturín		905,443	28,930	31.30	Eastern
	Nueva Esparta	La Asunción	Porlamar	491,610	1,150	427.90	Insular
	Portuguesa	Guanare		876,496	15,200	57.66	Central-Western
	Sucre	Cumaná		896,291	11,800	75.96	Eastern
	Táchira	San Cristóbal		1,168,908	11,100	105.31	Andean
	Trujillo	Trujillo	Valera	686,367	7,400	92.75	Andean
	Yaracuy	San Felipe		600,852	7,100	84.63	Central-Western
	Zulia	Maracaibo		3,704,404	63,100	58.71	Zulian

By human development index[]

Rank	State	HDI 2019[2]	Comparable country (2019 report)[3]
High human development
1	Capital District	0.757	Azerbaijan,  Dominican Republic
2	Miranda	0.744	Lebanon
3	Aragua	0.738	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,  Suriname
4	Carabobo	0.733	Jamaica
5	Nueva Esparta	0.732
	Vargas
7	Anzoátegui	0.723	Libya
8	Bolívar	0.715	Samoa,  Turkmenistan
9	Táchira	0.709	South Africa
10	Monagas	0.702	Gabon
11	Falcon	0.701
12	Mérida	0.700
Medium human development
13	Zulia	0.697	Kyrgyzstan
14	Delta Amacuro	0.696
15	Amazonas	0.692
16	Lara	0.691	Morocco
17	Cojedes	0.688
18	Sucre	0.680	Guyana
	Trujillo
20	Yaracuy	0.677	Iraq
21	Guárico	0.673	El Salvador
22	Portuguesa	0.657	Nicaragua,  Bhutan
	Barinas
24	Apure	0.639	Honduras

Special status areas[]

Flag	State	Capital	Population (2011)	Area (km2)	Region	Map
	Capital District	Caracas	1,943,901	433	Capital
	Federal Dependencies	Los Roques	2,155	342	Insular

State name etymologies[]

Several states are named for historical figures:

• Anzoátegui for José Antonio Anzoátegui
• Bolívar for Simón Bolívar
• Falcón for Juan Crisóstomo Falcón
• Lara for Jacinto Lara
• Miranda for Francisco de Miranda
• Monagas for José Tadeo Monagas and José Gregorio Monagas
• Sucre for Antonio José de Sucre
• La Guaira (Vargas) for José María Vargas

Several states are named for natural features:

• Amazonas is named for the Amazon Rainforest
• Apure is named for the Apure River
• Aragua for the Aragua River
• Cojedes for the Cojedes River
• Delta Amacuro for the river delta of the Orinoco River, and for the Amacuro River
• Guárico for the Guárico River
• Portuguesa for the Portuguesa River
• Táchira for the Táchira River
• Yaracuy for the Yaracuy River

Other naming origins:

• Barinas, named after the indigenous ethnic group in the area ^[4]
• Carabobo, named for an ethnic village
• Caracas, named for the Caracas indigenous group
• Mérida, for the capital city, Mérida, itself named for Mérida in Spain
• Nueva Esparta ("New Sparta") is named for the heroism shown by its inhabitants during the Venezuelan War of Independence, deemed similar to that of the Spartan soldiers of Ancient Greece.
• Trujillo, for the capital city, Trujillo, itself named for Trujillo in Spain
• Zulia's name stems from a vocal transliteration from the Chibcha language, the name they called an exotic blue-flowered plant known as "Edging Lobelia" (Lobelia erinus); also for the Zulia River.

See also[]

• ISO 3166-2:VE
• Administrative divisions of Venezuela
• Demographics of Venezuela
• List of cities and towns in Venezuela

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Some information was retrieved from the Venezuelan National Institute of Statistics.

External links[]

• CityMayors feature

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