Prefectures of Togo

Togo's Direction Générale de la Statistique et de la Comptabilité Nationale  has yearly population estimates by prefecture and region. I also used the areas from that page in the table below. The total of the areas of all the prefectures in one region is only roughly equal to the area of the region, as given on the Regions of Togo page.

Togo is divided into five regions, which are subdivided into 30 prefectures and one commune. Details are hard to find, but I believe this is the correct set of secondary divisions as of 2004-01-01. The populations are as listed at the Togo Confidentiel  site. It may be that Lomé commune is actually part of Golfe prefecture, but its population and area are split out in the census data.

Change history:

1. 1960-04-27: Togo became independent. Before that time, the secondary subdivisions were ten cercles (circles). The circles were replaced by 17 circonscriptions administratives (administrative circumscriptions), further subdivided into 158 cantons. The circumscriptions were Akposso (Hihéatro), Aného, Atakpamé, Bafilo, Bassari, Dapango, Kandé, Klouto (Palimé), Lama-Kara, Lomé, Niamtougou, Nuatja, Pagouda, Sansanné-Mango, Sokodé, Tabligbo, Tsévié. The capitals had the same names as the circumscriptions except as indicated in parentheses.
2. 1968-01-26: Sotouboua circumscription created from parts of Atakpamé and Sokodé.
3. 1969-02-22: Vogan circumscription split from Aného.
4. ~1970: Name of Sansanné-Mango circumscription, but not its capital, changed to Mango. This is the set of circumscriptions at that time. (Source: Encyclopædia Britannica, 1984 edition.)

1. Note: Bafilo and Bassari circumscriptions are pretty clearly in Kara region according to current maps. Either the EB was mistaken, or the boundary between Kara and Centre region changed.
2. 1974-05-08: Akposso circumscription split into Amlamé and Badou.
3. 1975-02-03: Tchamba circumscription split from Sokodé.
4. ~1982: Name of Dapango circumscription changed to Dapaong.
5. 1981-06-23: Laws No. 81-8 and 81-9 took effect. They dealt with the administrative reorganization of the territory of Togo. I haven't been able to find exactly what those laws said or did, but they may have been responsible for creating Kara region, or changing the status of circumscriptions to prefectures. Here are a map  and another map , showing the prefectures as of the period roughly from 1981 to 1995.

1. The CIA World Factbook (1990-98 editions) said that Togo was divided into circumscriptions, noting that their status may have been changed to prefectures. It gave a list which was approximately the same as the one above. It said that name changes had been reported for the prefectures, replacing the prefecture name with one of its alternate names. In 1992 and later editions, some errors crept in. Pagouda appeared twice in the list, and Nyala and Tchamba were listed as two separate prefectures, instead of alternate names for one. There were now apparently 23 prefecture names, but the text said there were 21, which was correct. In 1994, someone apparently noticed the disparity. Instead of fixing the list of prefectures, they changed the number from 21 to 23. In the 1997 issue, the number was changed back to 21, and the alternate names were dropped; also, a couple of the names were changed. In the 1999 edition, the five regions were listed, with no further subdivisions.
2. ~1995: Prefectures reorganized. Many of them changed their names to the alternate name. Dankpen prefecture split from Bassar; Lomé commune split from Golfe; Moyen-Mono prefecture split from Haho; Agou and Danyi prefectures split from Kloto; Est-Mono prefecture split from Ogou; Blitta prefecture split from Sotouboua; Kpendjal prefecture split from Tône; Tandjouaré prefecture formed from parts of Oti and Tône; part of Tône prefecture transferred to Oti; and Avé prefecture split from Zio.