Provinces of Burkina Faso

Buy data    Donate

Updates: 

I found a source from which I could calculate province areas.

FIPS Publication Change Notice No. 9, affecting FIPS PUB 10-4, was issued on 2004-10-01. It assigns FIPS codes to the fifteen new provinces. It also changes the FIPS codes of the old provinces from which the new ones were formed. Details are below under Primary subdivisions and Change history.

In "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries", I wrote that ISO/DIS 3166-2 showed 15 new provinces in Burkina Faso, for which no other data were available. I now have the capitals of those provinces, as well as their territorial extent, as presented in the table below.

International standard ISO 3166-2 was published on December 15, 1998. It superseded ISO/DIS 3166-2 (draft international standard). For Burkina Faso, the draft standard showed 45 provinces. The final standard shows the same 45 provinces and the same codes, with one exception. Komoé, with KOM as its code, has been altered to Comoé, with the code COM.

Country overview: 

The area now known as Burkina Faso was part of French Sudan at the beginning of the 20th century. French colonial control was not yet firmly established, and borders were indefinite. In 1904, the colony of Upper Senegal and Niger was created. On 1919-03-01, it was broken up, and Upper Volta was one of the parts thus formed. On 1932-09-06, Upper Volta was partitioned among Ivory Coast, French Sudan, and Niger, but this change was nullified on 1947-09-04. The country gained its independence on 1960-08-05, and changed its name to Burkina Faso in 1984.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Burkina Faso
2. Dutch: Burkina Faso, Opper Volta (obsolete)
3. English: People's Democratic Republic of Burkina Faso (formal), Burkina (informal), Upper Volta (obsolete), Voltaic Republic (obsolete)
4. Finnish: Burkina Faso, Ylä-Volta (obsolete)
5. French: Burkina m, Burkina Faso m, République f Démocratique Populaire de Burkina Faso (formal), Haute Volta f (obsolete)
6. German: Burkina Faso n, Obervolta (obsolete)
7. Icelandic: Búrkína Fasó
8. Italian: Burkina Faso, Alto Volta m (obsolete)
9. Norwegian: Burkina Faso
10. Portuguese: Burkina Faso m, Burquina Faso m, Alto Volta m (obsolete)
11. Spanish: Burkina Faso, Alto Volta (obsolete)
12. Swedish: Burkina Faso

Origin of name: 

Fatherland of honest men (Moré burkina: worthy, Dioula faso: fatherland)

Primary subdivisions: 

Burkina Faso is divided into 45 provinces.

Areas were calculated by dividing the province population by population density, and will not generally be accurate to more than three places.

Further subdivisions:

See the Departments of Burkina Faso page.

The provinces are subdivided into 351 départements.

Recently, thirteen régions were defined. I'm not aware that they have any administrative function yet.

Origins of names of the old departments:

1. Centre, Centre-Est, Centre-Nord, Centre-Ouest, Est, Nord, Sud-Ouest: Describes their position within the country
2. Hauts-Bassins: High [River] Basins
3. Ouagadougou: Possibly from Moré ouaga: come here, Dioula dougou: village
4. Sahel: originally Arabic sahil: seacoast, applied by mistake to the region north of Timbuktu, and later to any semi-arid land near the Sahara. The French botanist Auguste Chevalier asked natives what lay to the north; they thought he meant at the end of the caravan trails to the Mediterranean.
5. Volta-Noire: Black Volta, from the name of a branch of the Volta River, whose name comes from Portuguese volta: turn

Change history: 

1. 1960-08-05: Upper Volta became independent. At this time, it had four départements (departments).

1. 1966-03-10: The secondary subdivisions were 83 cercles (circles). On this date, 39 circles were merged with others, leaving 44 circles.
2. ~1967: Sahel department (capital Ouahigouya) formed from parts of Centre and Volta-Noire. Its creation had been approved in 1963, but a period of uncertainty ensued before the department was actually formed.
3. 1974-06-07: Status of circles changed to sous-préfectures (subprefectures). Centre-Est department split from Est. Centre-Nord department split from Centre. Centre-Ouest department split from Volta-Noire. Nord department split from Sahel, in such a way that the territory of Nord was exactly the same as the part of Sahel that had been taken from Volta-Noire in ~1967. Sud-Ouest department split from Hauts-Bassins. This was the result:

1. 1984-08-03: Name of country changed to Burkina Faso. ISO code was HV before the name change. (The World Statesmen  website says that the spelling "Bourkina-Fasso" was official from 1984-08-04 to 1984-08-15.)
2. (aside) Burkina Faso is probably the most widely-heard, least-understood insult in history. On 1983-08-04, Thomas Sankara took power from Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo in a coup d'état. Sankara went on to choose a new name for the country meaning "fatherland of honest men". We can conclude that he was insinuating that Ouedraogo had been dishonest.
3. 1984-08-15: The ten departments were reorganized into thirty provinces. This table shows the new provinces.

1997-01: Fifteen new provinces formed, as shown in the main table above.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Balé: Les Balé (variant)
2. Banwa: Les Banwa (variant)
3. Bazèga: Bazéga (variant)
4. Houet: Houé (variant)
5. Komoé: Comoé (variant)
6. Komondjari: Komandjoari (variant)
7. Kouritenga: Kourittenga (variant)
8. Naouri: Nahouri (variant)
9. Tui: Tuy (variant)