Provinces of Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands is divided into nine provinces. The national capital, Honiara, on the island of Guadalcanal, is separately governed as the islands' Capital Territory.

Provinces of Solomon Islands in 1989.

Provinces of Solomon Islands, numbered in alphabetical order.

History

Under the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, there were initially 12 administrative districts: Choiseul, Eastern Solomons, Gizo, Guadalcanal, Lord Howe, Malaita, Nggela and Savo, Rennell and Bellona Islands, Santa Cruz, Shortlands, Sikaiana (Stewart), and Ysabel and Cape Marsh. The administrative centre was in Tulagi.

After World War II, the protectorate was reorganised into four districts, namely Central, Western, Eastern, and Malaita, which were then further subdivided into councils. The administrative centre was moved from Tulagi to Honiara.

At its independence in 1978, the protectorate became the sovereign state of Solomon Islands. Honiara continued to function as the capital of the sovereign nation, and the inherited districts and councils remained until 1981, when the nation was reorganised into seven provinces by splitting some of the districts into provinces: the Central District was split into Central, Guadalcanal, and Isabel provinces, while the Eastern District was split into Makira-Ulawa and Temotu provinces. The other two districts, Western and Malaita, were also designated as provinces. These new provinces corresponded to the councils of the districts before 1981.

In 1983, the 22 square-kilometer Honiara was split from Guadalcanal Province and became a separately-governed capital territory. The city remains as the capital of Guadalcanal Province.

In 1995, Choiseul Province was split from Western Province, and Rennell and Bellona Province was split from Central Province, resulting in the nine provinces of today.

Population

The population census data is from the 1999 census; the 2009 population estimates are those provided by the Solomon Islands National Statistics Office. They show that the population has increased in the past decade for most of the provinces, especially the more urban ones, as urbanisation increases.

The figures for Guadalcanal Province do not include the separately-administered Capital Territory of Honiara; if included, that province would have had a total population of 109,382 in 1999, when it was the second largest province by population; by 2009, the combined estimate for Guadalcanal and the Capital Territory would be 157,745, which would make it the most populous province.

Provinces

#	Province	Capital	Premier	Area (km²)	Population census 1999	Population per km² (2009)	Population census 2009
1	Central Province	Tulagi	Patrick Vasuni	615	21,577	42.4	26,051
2	Choiseul Province	Taro Island	Watson Qoloni	3,837	20,008	6.9	26,371
3	Guadalcanal Province	Honiara	Anthony Veke	5,336	60,275	17.5	93,613
4	Isabel Province	Buala	James Habu	4,136	20,421	6.3	26,158
5	Makira-Ulawa Province	Kirakira	Stanley Siapu	3,188	31,006	12.7	40,419
6	Malaita Province	Auki	Peter Ramohia	4,225	122,620	32.6	137,596
7	Rennell and Bellona Province	Tigoa	Collin Suatai Singamoana	671	2,377	4.5	3,041
8	Temotu Province	Lata	David Maina	895	18,912	23.9	21,362
9	Western Province	Gizo	George Solingi Lilo	5,475	62,739	14.0	76,649
-	Capital Territory	Honiara	Mua (Mayor)	22	49,107	2,936.8	64,609
	Solomon Islands	Honiara	-	28,400	409,042	14.7	515,870

[1] excluding the Capital Territory of Honiara

See also

• ISO 3166-2:SB

References