Departments of Senegal

I acquired 2013 census data. I had erroneously assigned Koungheul department to Kaolack region. It's in Kaffrine. I've fixed that now.

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 acquired areas and populations for the departments as of 2005 from several sources, but none of them were complete. I had to do some combining and shuffling. The data shown in the last table in the Change history section are my best approximation.

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

DepartmentHASCPopulation
BakelSN.TB.BK138,867
BambeySN.DB.BB299,476
BignonaSN.ZG.BG252,556
BirkilaneSN.KF.BR101,216
BounkilingSN.SD.BL145,569
DaganaSN.ST.DG241,695
DakarSN.DK.DK1,146,053
DiourbelSN.DB.DB268,215
FatickSN.FK.FK339,241
FoundiougneSN.FK.FD279,436
GossasSN.FK.GS95,715
GoudirySN.TB.GY114,846
GoudompSN.SD.GP156,097
GuédiawayeSN.DK.GD329,659
GuinguinéoSN.KC.GG115,183
KaffrineSN.KF.KF207,676
KanelSN.MT.KN238,606
KaolackSN.KC.KL488,765
KébémerSN.LG.KB259,085
KédougouSN.KG.KG78,522
KoldaSN.KO.KD245,990
KoumpentoumSN.TB.KP128,433
KoungheulSN.KF.KU163,438
LinguèreSN.LG.LN241,897
LougaSN.LG.LG373,211
Malème HodarSN.KF.MH94,662
MatamSN.MT.MT272,620
MbackéSN.DB.MK929,764
MbourSN.TH.MR668,878
Médina Yoro FoulaSN.KO.YF138,084
Nioro du RipSN.KC.NR356,927
OussouyeSN.ZG.OU48,331
PikineSN.DK.PK1,170,791
PodorSN.ST.PD370,751
Ranérou FerloSN.MT.RN51,313
RufisqueSN.DK.RF490,694
Saint-LouisSN.ST.SL296,497
SalémataSN.KG.SM22,111
SarayaSN.KG.SY50,724
SédhiouSN.SD.SD151,327
TambacoundaSN.TB.TC299,163
ThièsSN.TH.TH667,814
TivaouaneSN.TH.TV452,172
VélingaraSN.KO.VL278,381
ZiguinchorSN.ZG.ZG248,264

Change history:

  1. 1962: Senegal was divided into seven regions, subdivided into 28 circles, further subdivided into 86 arrondissements.
  2. 1972-1980: circles were progressively supplanted by departments. On 1972-02-01, Thiès region was reorganized into Mbour, Thiès, and Tivaouane departments. On 1974-02-09, Sine-Saloum region was reorganized into six departments. On 1976-06-26, Diourbel region was reorganized into two regions (Diourbel and Louga), each consisting of three departments. In 1978, Casamance region was reorganized into six departments. In 1980, Fleuve region was reorganized into three departments.
  3. ~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.² was transferred from Mbour to Thiès department.
  4. The departments as of 2001 are listed in the following table. There is a map of the departments at this stage in the online book Population Dynamics of Senegal .
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
  1. 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. This table shows the departments that resulted.
DepartmentHASCPopulationArea(km.²)
BakelSN.TC.BK215,68022,378
BambeySN.DB.BB252,5321,351
BignonaSN.ZG.BG224,6175,295
DaganaSN.ST.DG207,9915,208
DakarSN.DK.DK1,030,59479
DiourbelSN.DB.DB220,2211,175
FatickSN.FK.FK267,7562,646
FoundiougneSN.FK.FD224,6592,959
GossasSN.FK.GS159,9462,330
GuédiawayeSN.DK.GD286,98913
KaffrineSN.KL.KF467,74811,853
KanelSN.MT.KN196,9199,783
KaolackSN.KL.KL382,7841,880
KébémerSN.LG.KB215,6483,823
KédougouSN.TC.KG111,20716,896
KoldaSN.KD.KD306,5918,284
LinguèreSN.LG.LN214,88319,716
LougaSN.LG.LG299,0754,911
MatamSN.MT.MT233,17912,700
MbackéSN.DB.MK710,3421,833
MbourSN.TH.MR513,2781,607
Nioro du RipSN.KL.NR282,1752,277
OussouyeSN.ZG.OU36,506891
PikineSN.DK.PK834,24687
PodorSN.ST.PD329,37912,947
Ranérou FerloSN.MT.RN48,4752,600
RufisqueSN.DK.RF307,463372
Saint-LouisSN.ST.SL226,977879
SédhiouSN.KD.SD399,3657,293
TambacoundaSN.TC.TC342,20420,328
ThièsSN.TH.TH529,2611,873
TivaouaneSN.TH.TV342,5193,121
VélingaraSN.KD.VL206,5475,434
ZiguinchorSN.ZG.ZG192,3251,153
  1. 2006: Koungheul arrondissement removed from Kaffrine to become a new department.
  2. 2008-02-01: Ten new departments formed in the process of creating three new regions.

Other names of subdivisions:

  1. Birkilane: Birkelane (variant)
  2. Koumpentoum: Koupentoum (variant)
  3. Malème Hodar: Malem Hoddar (variant)
  4. Médina Yoro Foula: Medina Yoro Foulah (variant)
  5. Mbacké: M'Backé (variant)
  6. Mbour: M'Bour (variant)
  7. Nioro du Rip: Nioro (variant)
  8. Ranérou Ferlo: Ranerou (variant)
Back to main statoids page Last updated: 2016-02-07
Copyright © 2001, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2016 by Gwillim Law.