Departments of Senegal

Senegal is divided into regions, which are subdivided into départements (departments). Most of the departments are further subdivided into arrondissements, and then into communes; some departments have no subdivisions.

I've received historical information from Hans Wittebol which shows that the division into departments goes back at least to 1973. Using that information, I made a couple of minor updates, including two changes to the areas of departments.

Several new departments were created in 2002-02-21. The table below shows the current departments of Senegal.

DepartmentHASC
BakelSN.TC.BK
BambeySN.DB.BB
BignonaSN.ZG.BG
DaganaSN.ST.DG
DakarSN.DK.DK
DiourbelSN.DB.DB
FatickSN.FK.FK
FoundiougneSN.FK.FD
GossasSN.FK.GS
GuédiawayeSN.DK.GD
KaffrineSN.KL.KF
KanelSN.MT.KN
KaolackSN.KL.KL
KébémerSN.LG.KB
KédougouSN.TC.KG
KoldaSN.KD.KD
LinguèreSN.LG.LN
LougaSN.LG.LG
MatamSN.MT.MT
MbackéSN.DB.MK
MbourSN.TH.MR
Nioro du RipSN.KL.NR
OussouyeSN.ZG.OU
PikineSN.DK.PK
PodorSN.ST.PD
Ranérou FerloSN.MT.RN
RufisqueSN.DK.RF
Saint-LouisSN.ST.SL
SédhiouSN.KD.SD
TambacoundaSN.TC.TC
ThièsSN.TH.TH
TivaouaneSN.TH.TV
VélingaraSN.KD.VL
ZiguinchorSN.ZG.ZG

Change history:

2002-02-21: Saint-Louis department split from Dagana; Matam department formed from parts of Linguère and former Matam department; the remainder of former Matam department split into Kanel and Ranérou Ferlo departments; Guédiawaye department split from Pikine. Before this change, the departments were as in the following table.

For a map of the departments at this stage, go to the online book Population Dynamics of Senegal , type "11" in the box labeled "go to page", and click on "GO".

DepartmentHASCPopulationArea(km.²)
BakelSN.TC.BK140,82422,378
BambeySN.DB.BB234,5321,351
BignonaSN.ZG.BG178,0205,295
DaganaSN.SL.DG355,4226,087
DakarSN.DK.DK822,83083
DiourbelSN.DB.DB215,2651,175
FatickSN.FK.FK238,9742,646
FoundiougneSN.FK.FD173,3632,959
GossasSN.FK.GS182,0662,330
KaffrineSN.KL.KF402,10111,853
KaolackSN.KL.KL376,6931,880
KébémerSN.LG.KB164,3703,823
KédougouSN.TC.KG74,74616,896
KoldaSN.KD.KD234,2028,284
LinguèreSN.LG.LN168,07319,716
LougaSN.LG.LG210,8975,649
MatamSN.SL.MT263,37325,093
MbackéSN.DB.MK351,2571,833
MbourSN.TH.MR371,6681,607
Nioro du RipSN.KL.NR234,0132,277
OussouyeSN.ZG.OU45,658891
PikineSN.DK.PK947,23895
PodorSN.SL.PD162,10112,947
RufisqueSN.DK.RF245,470372
SédhiouSN.KD.SD361,5547,293
TambacoundaSN.TC.TC262,31120,328
ThièsSN.TH.TH472,9741,873
TivaouaneSN.TH.TV348,0713,121
VélingaraSN.KD.VL154,5395,434
ZiguinchorSN.ZG.ZG240,3461,153
  • HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes.
  • Population: 1996-12-31 estimate. Source for populations
    and areas is Trade Point Senegal . Note: the figures given
    on the Trade Point Senegal Web page don't always add
    up to the totals given on the same page. The population
    given for Bignona department was the same as that
    given for the entire Ziguinchor region. I replaced it with
    the sum of the populations of its arrondissements.
  • Capitals: Have the same name as their departments.

 

~1984: Dakar region, formerly monodepartmental, was subdivided into Dakar, Pikine, and Rufisque departments. Also, some time between 1973 and 1995, an area of 298 km.˛ was transferred from Mbour to Thičs department.

Other names of subdivisions:

  1. Mbacké: M'Backé (variant)
  2. Mbour: M'Bour (variant)
  3. Nioro du Rip: Nioro (variant)
Back to main statoids page Last updated: 2006-06-03
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