Communes of New Caledonia

Originally, I wrote about the name of Boulouparis commune: "This is a curious case. All modern maps I could find show the spelling with no 's', but a Google search returns more than three times as many references to the spelling with the 's'." At that time I had no explanation; now I have two, which differ in detail. Tim Waters wrote, "it's a symbol of the pro-French stance of the town to change its name to be spelt more like that of Paris." This page  says that the final 's' was added on 1973-03-28 as an homage to Jacques Chirac. It's not clear how a final 's' honors M. Chirac, who at that time was a cabinet member and member of the Chamber of Deputies. He was mayor of Paris from 1977-03-20 until 1995-05-16. This would make a lot more sense if the date of the name change was 1977-03-28 instead of 1973.

New Caledonia is divided into three provinces, which are further divided into 33 communes. However, one commune (Poya) is split between two provinces. Here are the communes of New Caledonia.

CommuneHASCCodePopulationCapital
Bélep NC.NO.BE01930 Waala
Boulouparis NC.SU.BP022,089 Boulouparis
Bourail NC.SU.BR034,779 Bourail
Canala NC.NO.CA043,512 Canala
Dumbéa NC.SU.DU0518,602Dumbéa
Farino NC.SU.FA06459 Farino
Hienghène NC.NO.HI072,627 Hienghène
Houaïlou NC.NO.HO084,537 Houaïlou
Kaala-Gomen NC.NO.KG101,881 Kaala-Gomen
Koné NC.NO.KN114,500 Koné
Kouaoua NC.NO.KA  1,586 Kouaoua
Koumac NC.NO.KM123,003 Koumac
La Foa NC.SU.LF132,903 La Foa
Lifou NC.IL.LI1410,320Wé
l'Île des PinsNC.SU.IP091,840 Vao
Maré NC.IL.MA157,401 Tadine
Moindou NC.SU.MO16602 Moindou
Mont-Dore NC.SU.MD1724,195Mont-Dore
Nouméa NC.SU.NO1891,386Nouméa
Ouégoa NC.NO.OG192,114 Ouégoa
Ouvéa NC.IL.OV204,359 Fayaoué
Païta NC.SU.PA2112,062Païta
Poindimié NC.NO.PD224,824 Poindimié
Ponérihouen NC.NO.PH232,726 Ponérihouen
Pouébo NC.NO.PB242,381 Pouébo
Pouembout NC.NO.PT251,471 Pouembout
Poum NC.NO.PM261,390 Poum
Poya NC.NO.PY272,600 Poya
Sarraméa NC.SU.SA28610 Sarraméa
Thio NC.SU.TH292,743 Thio
Touho NC.NO.TO302,274 Touho
Voh NC.NO.VO312,240 Voh
Yaté NC.SU.YA321,843 Yaté
  • HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes.
    The middle two letters identify the province. For key,
    see "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries".
    Exception: Poya commune lies partly in Nord
    province and partly in Sud. Poya, the city, is in Nord.
  • Code: INSEE code for commune. Prefix 988 to get
    the full code. Ex.: 98830 for Touho. INSEE is the
    French national statistics agency (Institut National
    de la Statistique et des Études Économiques).
  • Population: 2004-08-31 census.

Change history:

  1. INSEE  says that New Caledonia's division into communes is a result of Law No. 69-5 (1969-01-03), Decree No. 69-272 (1969-03-28), and Decree No. 77-20 (1977-01-05). I know from other sources that Poum commune was created in 1977-01, so I assume that its creation was due to Decree No. 77-20.
  2. INSEE also says that Decree No. 89-512 (1989-07-24) reorganized New Caledonia into three administrative subdivisions: Nord, Sud, and Îles Loyauté. Moreover, the present statute has preserved the three provinces of New Caledonia, which were created by Referendary Law No. 88-1028 (1988-11-09). The provinces have the same names and territories as the subdivisions, except that the southern part of Poya commune is in Nord subdivision, but it's in Sud province.
  3. 1973-03-28: Name of Bouloupari commune changed to Boulouparis.
  4. 1977-01-05: Poum commune split from Koumac.
  5. 1995-04-25: Kouaoua commune split from Canala.

Other names of subdivisions:

  1. Boulouparis: Bouloupari (obsolete)
  2. Pouébo: Oubatche (obsolete)

Population history:

Commune1956-12-061963-05-021969-03-101976-04-231983-04-151989-04-041996-04-162004-08-31
Bélep 529573551624686745923930
Boulouparis 4836358469251,1391,4561,5912,089
Bourail 2,2122,3122,4333,1493,4104,1224,3644,779
Canala 2,8163,0973,5593,8843,8423,9663,3743,512
Dumbéa 2844631,3044,1915,53810,05213,88818,602
Farino 142172161194253237279459
Hienghène 1,9402,1091,8461,9321,7292,1222,2082,627
Houaïlou 2,2412,8083,4753,8533,9953,6714,3324,537
Kaala-Gomen 1,1611,2281,2961,4251,2311,5491,7871,881
Koné 2,0372,3402,5572,4792,9192,9194,0884,500
Kouaoua 1,5241,586
Koumac 2,7592,0591,9072,4811,4052,1942,6473,003
La Foa 9341,4071,3331,9932,0942,1552,5022,903
Lifou 5,5946,0826,8377,5858,1288,72610,00710,320
l'Île des Pins6749309781,0951,2871,4651,6711,840
Maré 3,1043,2403,4104,1564,6105,6466,8967,401
Moindou 272392291387378461568602
Mont-Dore 1,2882,6404,80910,65914,61416,37020,78024,195
Nouméa 22,23534,99041,85356,07860,11265,11076,29391,386
Ouégoa 1,1991,3631,3231,5141,4681,8812,0342,114
Ouvéa 2,1802,0872,0012,7772,7723,5403,9744,359
Païta 1,3971,9032,5223,4074,8346,0497,86212,062
Poindimié 2,1522,5192,4813,0103,6443,5904,3404,824
Ponérihouen 1,8401,8531,9482,0651,9322,3262,6912,726
Pouébo 1,2941,3881,4721,7821,5032,2422,3522,381
Pouembout 4825775877346928541,1891,471
Poum 8161,0381,3201,390
Poya 1,0661,0191,2812,9151,9611,8622,5222,600
Sarraméa 255307331357483400486610
Thio 1,7762,2533,1762,8943,0192,3682,6142,743
Touho 1,3321,3731,4741,6671,9011,9632,2342,274
Voh 1,3281,4751,4241,6561,5861,6861,9422,240
Yaté 1,4749251,1131,3651,3871,4081,5541,843
Totals68,48086,519100,579133,233145,368164,173196,836230,789

 

Source: Institut de la Statistique et des Études Économiques - Nouvelle-Calédonie .

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