Districts of Mauritius

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Updates: 

Celvin Ruisdael notified me of sources [4] and [5]. I have used them to fill in some history.

Mauritius went on daylight saving time in 2008-09, but only for that one season.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter number I-4, was released on 2002-12-10. In "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries", I reported that ISO 3166-2 (at that time in draft form) showed Mauritius divided into five cities, nine districts, and three dependencies. In my opinion, the five cities were not really first-level subdivisions, but were parts of two of the districts. The standard listed Port Louis city and Port Louis district, both with the code MU-PL. I didn't point out the ambiguity of the code, because I wasn't treating Port Louis city as a subdivision. In this newsletter, ISO has apparently recognized the code conflict, and changed the code for Port Louis city to MU-PU.

Country overview: 

Short nameMAURITIUS
ISO codeMU
FIPS codeMP
LanguageEnglish (en)
Time zone+4
CapitalPort Louis

 

Although Mauritius was a British colony from 1814 until it gained independence on 1968-03-12, its place names retain a strong flavor of older times when it was the French colony of Île de France.

Other names of country: 

  1. Danish: Mauritius
  2. Dutch: Mauritius, Republiek Mauritius (formal)
  3. English: Republic of Mauritius (formal)
  4. Finnish: Mauritius
  5. French: Maurice f
  6. German: Mauritius n
  7. Icelandic: Máritíus
  8. Italian: Maurizio
  9. Norwegian: Mauritius, Republikken Mauritius (formal)
  10. Portuguese: Maurício m, Maurícia, Maurícias fp, Ilha f Maurício (Portugal), República f do Maurício (formal)
  11. Russian: Республика Маврикий (formal)
  12. Spanish: Mauricio m
  13. Swedish: Mauritius
  14. Turkish: Mauritius Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

named by early explorers after Maurice of Nassau (1567-1625)

Primary subdivisions: 

Mauritius is divided into nine districts, two dependencies, and one region.

DistrictTypHASCFIPSPop-2000Pop-1990Area(km.²)Area(mi.²)Capital
Agalega IslandspMU.AGMP21  7027Port Louis
Black RiverdMU.BLMP1260,58743,768259100Tamarin
Cargados CarajospMU.CCMP22  10Port Louis
FlacqdMU.FLMP13126,839112,773298115Centre de Flacq
Grand PortdMU.GPMP14106,66596,667259100Mahebourg
MokadMU.MOMP1575,47965,17623189Moka
PamplemoussesdMU.PAMP16122,252101,66617969Pamplemousses
Plaines WilhemsdMU.PWMP17358,182321,71320579Beau Bassin-Rose Hill
Port LouisdMU.PLMP18127,855133,0734417Port Louis
Rivière du RempartdMU.RRMP1998,85486,77914857Poudre d'Or
RodriguesrMU.ROMP2335,77934,20410440Port Louis
SavannedMU.SAMP2066,35660,84124394Souillac
12 divisions1,178,8481,056,6602,041787
  • Typ: d = district, p = dependency, r = region
  • HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. If periods are replaced by
    hyphens, these are the same as the district codes from ISO standard 3166-2.
  • FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4.
  • Pop-2000: 2000-07-02 census
  • Pop-1990: 1990-07-01 census

Further subdivisions:

In addition to the divisions listed above, ISO 3166-2 lists the following five cities. The FIPS standard also listed them, calling them "urban councils", until 1991. They are all located within Plaines Wilhems district, except Port Louis, which is in Port Louis district.

CityISOFIPS
Beau Bassin-Rose HillBRMP02
CurepipeCUMP04
Port LouisPUMP07
Quatre BornesQBMP08
Vacoas-PhoenixVPMP11

Territorial extent: 

  1. The districts (as opposed to the dependencies and region) are all mainly located on Mauritius Island.
  2. Agalega Islands is an island group north of Mauritius.
  3. Black River includes Île aux Bénitiers (Île Morne).
  4. Cargados Carajos consists of a set of islets north of Mauritius, called the Cargados Carajos Shoals (Saint Brandon Rocks).
  5. Flacq includes Île aux Cerfs.
  6. Rivière du Rempart includes Flat Island, Gabriel Island, Gunner's Quoin, Île d'Ambre, and Round Island.
  7. Rodrigues is an island east of Mauritius, with a few adjacent islets and shoals.

Origins of names: 

Pamplemousses: French for grapefruit (plural)

Change history: 

The divisions of Mauritius according to the 1952 census were these:

DistrictPop-72Pop-52
Black River23,86613,430
Flacq89,05056,867
Grand Port80,71952,709
Moka48,61027,961
Pamplemousses68,94840,663
Plaines Wilhems261,004149,399
Port Louis133,99684,539
Rivière du Rempart66,99540,323
Rodrigues24,76913,333
Savanne53,01135,309
Other dependencies3661,752
Total851,334516,556
  • District: Rodrigues is a
    dependency. In the 1972 report,
    "Other dependencies" explicitly means
    Agalega Islands and Saint Brandon.
  • Pop-72: 1972-06-30 census
    (source [6]).
  • Pop-52: 1952-06-29 census
    (source [4]).
  1. 1965-11-08: Chagos Archipelago dependency split from Mauritius to form British Indian Ocean Territory.
  2. Source [3] (1971) shows Mauritius divided into three district councils, five urban councils, and three dependencies. The district councils (and their capitals) were Moka-Flacq (Quartier Militaire), North (Mapou), and South (Rose Belle). The urban councils were Beau Bassin-Rose Hill, Curepipe, Port Louis, Quatre Bornes, and Vacoas-Phoenix. The dependencies were Agalega Islands, Cargados Carajos Shoals, and Rodrigues Island. The urban councils are the same as the cities mentioned under "Further subdivisions". I believe that these governmental divisions are less representative than the geographical divisions in the main table.
  3. ~1976: Moka-Flacq district council (capital Quartier Militaire, FIPS code MP05) split into Flacq and Moka districts. North district council (capital Triolet, FIPS code MP06) split into Pamplemousses and Rivière du Rempart districts. South district council (capital Rose Belle, FIPS code MP10) split into Black River, Grand Port, Plaines Wilhems, and Savanne districts. The five urban councils were apparently absorbed into their respective districts.
  4. 2001-11-20: Status of Rodrigues Island changed from dependency to island region.

Other names of subdivisions: 

  1. Cargados Carajos: Saint-Brandon (variant)
  2. Rodrigues: Rodriguez (obsolete)

Sources: 

  1. [1] L'Évaluation des effectifs de la population des pays Africains, Tome I. Groupe de Démographie Africaine, Paris, 1982.
  2. [2] There were maps showing the wards on Mauritius Island and the zones on Rodrigues Island at http://ncb.intnet.mu/cso/report/hpcen00/Demogra/apen1.htm and http://ncb.intnet.mu/cso/report/hpcen00/Demogra/appen3.htm, respectively (retrieved 2002-12-15). The links are dead now.
  3. [3] Geographic Report No. 16, issued by the office of the Geographer, Department of State, 1971-10-27.
  4. [4] Demographic Yearbook , 7th Ed. Statistical Office of the United Nations, New York, 1955 (retrieved 2011-08-20).
  5. [5] Annual Digest of Statistics 2009 , Vol. 54. Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Central Statistics Office, 2010-07 (retrieved 2011-09-17). Contains data from sixteen censuses 1851-2000, limited to total population of the country (excluding dependencies), of Mauritius Island, and of Rodrigues Island (p. 14). Also contains 1990 and 2000 census data by district (p.17).
  6. [6] 1979 Demographic Yearbook , 31st Ed. Statistical Office, United Nations, New York, 1980 (retrieved 2011-12-28).
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