Municipalities of Libya

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Updates: 

Samuel Villavicencio reports finding a census report for Libya at http://www.tedad-libya.info/tedad_2006.htm (now a dead link; probably accessed about 2007-09-01). According to that source, these are the municipalities and their populations:

Wikipedia's Municipalities of Libya  page mysteriously reports these same 20 municipalities and two extra: Al Jufrah and Wadi Al Shatii. Wikipedia references this page  (in Arabic). In view of the conflict, and the fact that I haven't found a map of the latest set of municipalities, I don't feel justified in updating the main table yet.

Previously I had listed 1954 census data from the 1957 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica World Atlas. The 1964 edition has slightly different populations and areas, so I'm using the more recent version now.

Celvin Ruisdael found population data for Libya on a web page of (I think) the Libya Media Organization (http://www.alelam.net/dir/population.htm - now a dead link; accessed about 2004-11). The 1995 column apparently gave data from the 1995 census. In order to make the column add up correctly, I transposed two digits in the population of Bani Walid. No populations are given in this and other sources for Al Qatrun, Jaghbub, and Tajura' wa an Nawahi al Arba` municipalities, suggesting that those three may have merged with other municipalities recently.

Erratum: Population data given in the book are 1984 estimates. There was no 1991 census.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter number I-5, dated 2003-09-05, has a new list of municipalities (Arabic: sha`biyah) for Libya. The source for this list is "Information from French Embassy to Tripoli, 2002-09". Jose Gavinha has done a lot of research on the Internet, and sent me his resulting description of the territorial changes from the situation of 1990 to the present situation.

Country overview: 

In 1900, the vilayet of Tripoli, a part of the Ottoman Empire, covered roughly the same territory as modern Libya. It was conquered by Italy, and became an Italian colony by the Treaty of Ouchy on 1912-10-18. In 1939, the four provinces of Libya became an integral part of Italy under the name Libia Italiana. After World War II, Great Britain held Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, and France held Fezzan, under temporary military administration. On 1951-12-24, Libya was reunited and became an independent country.

Other names of country: 

1. Arabic: al-Jamahiriyah al-Arabiya al-Libiya al-Shabiya al-Ishtirakiya al-Uzma (formal)
2. Danish: Libyen
3. Dutch: Libië, Grote Socialistische Lybische Arabische Volksjamahiriya (formal)
4. English: Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (formal)
5. Finnish: Libya
6. French: Libye f, Jamahiriya f arabe libyenne
7. German: Libyen n, Libysch-Arabische Dschamahirija
8. Icelandic: Líbýa
9. Italian: Libia f
10. Norwegian: Den sosialistiske arabiske folkerepublikk Libya (formal) (Bokmål), Den sosialistiske arabiske folkerepublikken Libya (formal) (Nynorsk), Libya
11. Portuguese: Líbia, Grande Jamahiriya Socialista Popular Árabe da Líbia f (formal)
12. Spanish: Libia, Gran Jamahiriya f Árabe Libia Popular y Socialista (formal)
13. Swedish: Libyen

Origin of name: 

from an ethnic name

Primary subdivisions: 

Libya is divided into 34 sha`biyat (sing. sha`biyah: municipalities or governorates).

Origins of names: 

1. Al Jabal al Gharbi: = western mountain
2. Al Wusta: = central
3. Benghazi: Arabic bani: sons, gazi: conqueror, i.e. sons of the conqueror
4. Tarabulus: Greek tri: three, polis: city (Tripoli was formed by merging three cities)

Change history: 

1. Libya has traditionally been divided geographically into three regions: Cyrenaica (or Barca) in the east, Fezzan in the southwest, and Tripolitania in the northwest.
2. 1919-05-17: Libya divided into Cyrenaica and Tripolitania provinces.
3. 1919-09-12: France ceded some territory from Algeria to Libya, where it was incorporated into Tripolitania province, straightening the border somewhat.
4. 1919: Egypt and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan ceded territory to Libya. Both cessions were incorporated into Cyrenaica.
5. 1926: Egypt ceded more territory to Cyrenaica, leaving the border in its modern position, which follows the meridian of 25° East quite closely.
6. 1934: Cyrenaica province split into Benghazi and Derne provinces; Tripolitania split into Tripoli and Misurata. The largest parts of each of the provinces, in the south, were under military administration as the Libyan Sahara Territory.
7. ~1943: Occupying British and French forces established the three provinces listed here:

1. 1963-04-27: Libya reorganized from three provinces into ten muhafazat (districts, governorates), as listed here:

1. 1969: Name of Al Jabal al Akhdar governorate changed to Al Bayda'; name of Al Jabal al Gharbi governorate changed to Gharyan.
2. ~1973: It appears that there was a temporary reorganization. Benghazi governorate was reduced to a small northern stub, containing the city of Banghazi. Al Khalij governorate was formed from the remainder of Benghazi and the eastern part of Misratah. Misratah, in return, was augmented by the eastern parts of Gharyan and Sabhah. Awbari merged with the remainder of Sabhah. The net effect on the list of governorates was that Awbari was replaced by Al Khalij.
3. ~1983: Libya reorganized into 46 municipalities, as listed below:

1. ~1987: Libya reorganized into the 25 baladiyah (municipalities) listed in the following table. Judging from their FIPS codes, Al `Aziziyah, Al Jufrah, Al Kufrah, Ash Shati', Murzuq, Sabha, Tarhunah, Tobruk, and Zlitan municipalities remained unchanged through the reorganization.

1. 1995-08-02: Libya reorganized into 13 municipalities. I have two data sources for this division: The Europa World Year Book 2001, and the Ershiyi Shiji Shijie Diming Lu. Unfortunately, they're hard to reconcile. I give them both here, in hopes that someone will be able to find the correct matches. The Chinese source gives the total area as 1,759,540 km.², but the municipality areas add up to only 1,662,500.

Notes: Alan Pritchard, of the Global Gazetteer, working on a Universal Postal Union file, found a supposed Libyan province called Al Wahat. Pursuing it on the Internet, he found a UNESCO report  on Libya, dated 2000, that seems to mention some new subdivisions. There are some problems with the report, so I wasn't able to use it to make a new list. However, it does contain some information that may serve as a basis for further investigation.

The report's author (D. Abdalla El Abed Abou Jaafar) displays a good command of English, but Libya is consistently spelled "Lybia"; Jamahiriya is spelled "Jamahyria" on the first page and "Jamahirya" subsequently. This suggests that he uses an idiosyncratic method of transliteration from Arabic to English.

The following definitions are given:

"The Fundamental Popular Council: This is the local legislative power that comprises all adult men and women at the level of the first administrative unit (The Quarter)

"The Popular: This is the regional executive power that corresponds to municipality or department in other countries."

In the remainder of the report, the geographic breakdown is by "regions". It's possible that quarters are the same as the municipalities listed on this Web page, and that the populars, or regions, are lower-level administrative units.

Tables in the report don't pretend to list all of the regions of Libya, but just selected ones. In Table 3, on the first page, there are twelve regions listed: Al Beida, Al Khams, Al Marj, Benghazi, Darana, Elzawiya, Ijdabiya, Mesrata, Sabha, Souf El Jin, Tobrok, and Tripoli. In Table 5, on the second page, Al Chatek, Al Jafra, Al Kobbeh, Al Markab, Al Noukat Al Khams, Al Wahat, Benghazi, Darna, Marzouk, Mesrata, Nalout, Sabha, Sahl El Jaffara, Sart, Tripoli, and Wadi El Hayat are listed as regions.

Some of these regions can be tentatively identified with one of either the old 25 municipalities or the newer 13. Since Al Bayda' was the capital of Al Jabal al Akhdar (old), Al Beida may be the same as either the old or the new Al Jabal al Akhdar. Al Khams is probably an alternate spelling of Al Khums (old). Al Marj was the capital of Al Fatih (old). Benghazi (Banghazi) is the name of both an old and a new. Darnah (Darana, Darna) was an old. Elzawiya is probably the same as Az Zawiyah (old and new). Ijdabiya is probably Ajdabiya (old). Mesrata is Misratah (old and new). Sabha was an old. Souf El Jin corresponds to Sawfajjin (old and new). Tobrok is Tobruk (old). Tripoli is Tarabulus (old and new). Al Jafra is Al Jufrah (old and new). Al Noukat Al Khams matches An Nuqat al Khams (old). Marzouk is Murzuq (old). Sahl El Jaffara is probably the Al Jifarah municipality created in ~2001. Sart is Surt (old).

1. 1998: According to the Statesman's Yearbook, 2006 edition, Libya was reorganized from 13 shabiyat (administrative regions) into 26: Al-Batan, Al-Jafarah, Al-Jofra, Al-Kofra, Al-Marj, Al-Morqib, Al-Qoba, Al-Wahad, Ben Walid, Benghazi, Derna, Gharyan, Jabal Al-Akhdar, Murzaq, Musrata, Nalout, Nikat Al-Khams, Sabah, Sabrata/Sorman, Sirte, Tarhouna/Msallata, Tripoli, Wadi Al-Hait, Wadi Al-Shaati, Yefrin, and Zawiyah. I have no other source for this fact.
2. ~2001: Libya reorganized into 34 municipalities, as shown in the table under "Primary subdivisions". According to Jose Gavinha, the changes from the 25 municipalities of ~1987 to the 34 municipalities of ~2001 were as follows. Al `Aziziyah municipality renamed to Al Jifarah; Al Fatih municipality renamed to Al Marj; Al Khums municipality renamed to Al Marqab; Sawfajjin renamed to Bani Walid; Tarhunah renamed to Tarhunah-Masallatah; Tobruk renamed to Al Butnan; Yafran renamed to Yafran-Jadu. Al Wahah municipality split from Ajdabiya; Al Hizam al Akhdar municipality split from Al Fatih; Sabratah Surman municipality formed by taking the Sabratah area from An Nuqat al Khams and the Surman area from Az Zawiyah; Awbari municipality split into Ghat and Wadi al Hayat; Al Qubbah municipality split from Darnah; Nalut municipality split from Ghadamis; Mizdah municipality split from Gharyan; Al Qatrun municipality split from Murzuq; Jaghbub municipality split from Al Butnan (formerly Tobruk); Tajura' wa an Nawahi al Arba` municipality split from Tripoli. The following additional changes are uncertain: part of Az Zawiyah may have been transferred to Al Jifarah; part of Benghazi may have been transferred to Al Hizam al Akhdar; Zlitan merged with a neighboring municipality, but we don't know whether it was Al Marqab (formerly Al Khums) to the west, or Misratah to the east.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Ajdabiya: Aghdabiya (variant)
2. Al Butnan: Tobruk, Tubruq (obsolete)
3. Al Fatih: Fatah (variant)
4. Al Hizam al Akhdar: al-Hizam al-Ahdar (variant)
5. Al Jabal al Akhdar: Al Bayda', al-Ghabal al-Ahdar, Beida, Djebel Akhdar, Jebel el Akhdar (variant)
6. Al Jifarah: Al `Aziziyah (obsolete); al-Ghifarā (variant)
7. Al Jufrah: al-Ghufrā (variant)
8. Al Kufrah: al-Kufrā (variant)
9. Al Marj: Al' Fatih, al-Margh (variant)
10. Al Marqab: Al Khums, Homs, Khoms (obsolete)
11. Al Qubbah: al-Qubbā (variant)
12. Al Wahah: al-Wahat (variant)
13. An Nuqat al Khams: an-Niqat al-Hams, Nigat al Khums (variant)
14. Ash Shati': Shati, Wadi ash-Shati' (variant)
15. Awbari: Ubari (variant)
16. Az Zawiyah: az-Zawiyā, Zavia, Zawia (variant)
17. Bani Walid: Sawfajjin (variant)
18. Benghazi: Banghazi (Arabic), Bengasi (German, Italian, Spanish)
19. Darnah: Darana, Darnā, Derna (variant)
20. Ghadamis: Gadamis, Ghadames (variant)
21. Gharyan: Al Jabal al Gharbi, Garyan, Gharian, Jabal al Gharb, Jebel el Gharb (variant)
22. Ghat: Gat (variant)
23. Jaghbub: al-Ghaghbub (variant)
24. Misratah: Misratā, Misurata (variant)
25. Mizdah: Mizdā (variant)
26. Sabha: Sabhah, Sebha (variant)
27. Sabratah Surman: Sabratā wa-Surman (variant)
28. Surt: Sirte (English)
29. Tajura' wa an Nawahi al Arba`: Taghura' wa-n-Nawahi al-Arba (variant)
30. Tarhunah-Masallatah: Tarhunah (obsolete); Tarhunā wa-Masallatā (variant)
31. Tripoli: Tarabulus (Arabic); Tripolis (German)
32. Yafran-Jadu: Jafran, Yafran (obsolete); Yafran wa-Ghadu (variant)

Provinces:

1. Cyrenaica: Barca, Barka (variant); Barqah (Arabic); Cirenaica (Italian, Portuguese, Spanish); Cyrenaika (German, Norwegian); Cyrénaïque (French)
2. Fezzan: Fazzan (Arabic)
3. Tripolitania: Tripolitaine (French); Tripolitan, Tripolitanien (German); Tripolitânia (Portuguese)