Districts of Lesotho

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Updates: 

Lesotho has released preliminary results  of the 2006 census. (Thanks to Samuel Villavicencio for finding this page.) Previously, I found the results of the 1996 census and the 2001 demographic survey on a page from the Lesotho Bureau of Statistics.  A Google search returns a page on the Ministry of Finance and Development  site that purportedly has preliminary 2006 census figures at variance with these, but the download hasn't been working for me.

Country overview: 

Basutoland was a British protectorate for the first part of the 20th century. On 1966-10-04, it became independent under the name of Lesotho.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Lesotho
2. Dutch: Lesotho, Koninkrijk Lesotho (formal)
3. English: Kingdom of Lesotho (formal), Basutoland (obsolete)
4. Finnish: Lesotho
5. French: Lesotho m
6. German: Lesotho n
7. Icelandic: Lesótó
8. Italian: Lesotho m
9. Norwegian: Lesotho, Kongeriket Lesotho (formal)
10. Portuguese: Lesoto, Reino m do Lesoto m (formal), Basutolândia f (obsolete)
11. Spanish: Lesoto, Reino m de Lesotho (formal), Basutia (obsolete), Basutolandia (obsolete)
12. Swedish: Lesotho

Origin of name: 

Land of the Sothos

Primary subdivisions: 

Lesotho is divided into ten districts.

Note: Berea district has an alternate name, Teyateyaneng. The district is commonly called Berea, but the capital is almost always known as Teyateyaneng. Similarly, the capital of Leribe is also known as Hlotse.

Further subdivisions:

See the Councils of Lesotho page.

The districts were further subdivided into wards until 2005-04-11, when a set of community councils was supposedly introduced.

Territorial extent: 

Lesotho is entirely surrounded by South Africa.

Change history: 

1. ~1910: Basutoland reorganized. New Berea district formed from part of old Berea; new Leribe formed from parts of old Berea and Leribe; Mafeteng formed from part of Thaba Bosigo; Maseru formed from parts of Berea and Thaba Bosigo; Mohale's Hoek formed from Kornet Spruit; Qacha's Nek formed from parts of Berea, Leribe, and Quthing; new Quthing formed from part of old Quthing.
2. ~1944: Leribe district split into Butha-Buthe and Leribe; Qacha's Nek district split into Mokhotlong and Qacha's Nek.
3. ~1980: Thaba-Tseka district formed from parts of Leribe, Maseru, Mokhotlong, and Qacha's Nek. The other districts all had minor border changes. Prior to this change, the nine districts excluding Thaba-Tseka had FIPS codes from LT01 to LT09. Each number was nine less than the current code.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. The apostrophes are sometimes omitted. In older sources, hyphens are sometimes omitted or replaced by spaces.
2. Berea: Teyateyaneng (variant)
3. Butha-Buthe: Botha-Bothe (variant)

Population history:

District	1976-04-12	1986-04-14	1996-04-14	2006-04-09
Berea	150,000	194,600	240,754	248,225
Butha-Buthe	79,000	100,600	109,192	109,139
Leribe	203,000	258,000	300,160	296,673
Mafeteng	162,000	195,600	211,970	192,795
Maseru	227,000	311,100	385,869	436,399
Mohale's Hoek	137,000	164,400	184,034	173,706
Mokhotlong	62,000	74,700	85,628	95,332
Qacha's Nek	50,000	64,000	71,665	71,756
Quthing	90,000	110,400	126,342	119,811
Thaba-Tseka	87,000	104,100	126,353	128,885
Totals	1,246,815	1,577,500	1,841,967	1,872,721

1976 figures were derived as follows: the total population is as given in the Statesman's Year-Book, 1979-80 edition. The Lesotho Bureau of Statistics issued a report  giving the percentage of total population in each district (Table 17.2). I applied those percentages to the total population to get the district populations, which are rounded to represent the uncertainty in the percentages. Other columns are census data.