Mauritius Districts (original) (raw)

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Updates:

I found historical population data in source [7].

Mauritius went on daylight saving time in 2008-09, but only for that one season.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter number I-4, was released on 2002-12-10. In "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries", I reported that ISO 3166-2 (at that time in draft form) showed Mauritius divided into five cities, nine districts, and three dependencies. In my opinion, the five cities were not really first-level subdivisions, but were parts of two of the districts. The standard listed Port Louis city and Port Louis district, both with the code MU-PL. I didn't point out the ambiguity of the code, because I wasn't treating Port Louis city as a subdivision. In this newsletter, ISO has apparently recognized the code conflict, and changed the code for Port Louis city to MU-PU.

Country overview:

Short name MAURITIUS
ISO code MU
FIPS code MP
Language English (en)
Time zone +4
Capital Port Louis

Although Mauritius was a British colony from 1814 until it gained independence on 1968-03-12, its place names retain a strong flavor of older times when it was the French colony of �le de France.

Other names of country:

  1. Danish: Mauritius
  2. Dutch: Mauritius, Republiek Mauritius (formal)
  3. English: Republic of Mauritius (formal)
  4. Finnish: Mauritius
  5. French: Maurice f
  6. German: Mauritius n
  7. Icelandic: M�rit�us
  8. Italian: Maurizio
  9. Norwegian: Mauritius, Republikken Mauritius (formal)
  10. Portuguese: Maur�cio m, Maur�cia, Maur�cias fp, Ilha f Maur�cio (Portugal), Rep�blica f do Maur�cio (formal)
  11. Russian: Республика Маврикий (formal)
  12. Spanish: Mauricio m
  13. Swedish: Mauritius
  14. Turkish: Mauritius Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name:

named by early explorers after Maurice of Nassau (1567-1625)

Primary subdivisions:

Mauritius is divided into nine districts, two dependencies, and one region.

District Typ HASC FIPS Population Area(km.�) Area(mi.�) Capital
Agalega Islands p MU.AG MP21 274 70 27 Port Louis
Black River d MU.BL MP12 76,604 259 100 Tamarin
Cargados Carajos p MU.CC MP22 1 0 Port Louis
Flacq d MU.FL MP13 135,406 298 115 Centre de Flacq
Grand Port d MU.GP MP14 110,907 259 100 Mahebourg
Moka d MU.MO MP15 82,302 231 89 Moka
Pamplemousses d MU.PA MP16 136,268 179 69 Pamplemousses
Plaines Wilhems d MU.PW MP17 362,292 205 79 Beau Bassin-Rose Hill
Port Louis d MU.PL MP18 118,431 44 17 Port Louis
Rivi�re du Rempart d MU.RR MP19 106,267 148 57 Poudre d'Or
Rodrigues r MU.RO MP23 40,434 104 40 Port Louis
Savanne d MU.SA MP20 67,906 243 94 Souillac
12 divisions 1,237,091 2,041 787
Typ: d = district, p = dependency, r = region HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. If periods are replaced byhyphens, these are the same as the district codes from ISO standard 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Population: 2011-07-03 census (source [8]).

Further subdivisions:

In addition to the divisions listed above, ISO 3166-2 lists the following five cities. The FIPS standard also listed them, calling them "urban councils", until 1991. They are all located within Plaines Wilhems district, except Port Louis, which is in Port Louis district.

City ISO FIPS
Beau Bassin-Rose Hill BR MP02
Curepipe CU MP04
Port Louis PU MP07
Quatre Bornes QB MP08
Vacoas-Phoenix VP MP11

Territorial extent:

  1. The districts (as opposed to the dependencies and region) are all mainly located on Mauritius Island.
  2. Agalega Islands is an island group north of Mauritius.
  3. Black River includes �le aux B�nitiers (�le Morne).
  4. Cargados Carajos consists of a set of islets north of Mauritius, called the Cargados Carajos Shoals (Saint Brandon Rocks).
  5. Flacq includes �le aux Cerfs.
  6. Rivi�re du Rempart includes Flat Island, Gabriel Island, Gunner's Quoin, �le d'Ambre, and Round Island.
  7. Rodrigues is an island east of Mauritius, with a few adjacent islets and shoals.

The UN LOCODE page for Mauritius lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Origins of names:

Pamplemousses: French for grapefruit (plural)

Change history:

The divisions of Mauritius according to the 1952 census were these:

District Pop-72 Pop-52
Black River 23,866 13,430
Flacq 89,050 56,867
Grand Port 80,719 52,709
Moka 48,610 27,961
Pamplemousses 68,948 40,663
Plaines Wilhems 261,004 149,399
Port Louis 133,996 84,539
Rivi�re du Rempart 66,995 40,323
Rodrigues 24,769 13,333
Savanne 53,011 35,309
Other dependencies 366 1,752
Total 851,334 516,556
District: Rodrigues is adependency. In the 1972 report,"Other dependencies" explicitly meansAgalega Islands and Saint Brandon. Pop-72: 1972-06-30 census(source [6]). Pop-52: 1952-06-29 census(source [4]).
  1. 1965-11-08: Chagos Archipelago dependency split from Mauritius to form British Indian Ocean Territory.
  2. Source [3] (1971) shows Mauritius divided into three district councils, five urban councils, and three dependencies. The district councils (and their capitals) were Moka-Flacq (Quartier Militaire), North (Mapou), and South (Rose Belle). The urban councils were Beau Bassin-Rose Hill, Curepipe, Port Louis, Quatre Bornes, and Vacoas-Phoenix. The dependencies were Agalega Islands, Cargados Carajos Shoals, and Rodrigues Island. The urban councils are the same as the cities mentioned under "Further subdivisions". I believe that these governmental divisions are less representative than the geographical divisions in the main table.
  3. ~1976: Moka-Flacq district council (capital Quartier Militaire, FIPS code MP05) split into Flacq and Moka districts. North district council (capital Triolet, FIPS code MP06) split into Pamplemousses and Rivi�re du Rempart districts. South district council (capital Rose Belle, FIPS code MP10) split into Black River, Grand Port, Plaines Wilhems, and Savanne districts. The five urban councils were apparently absorbed into their respective districts.
  4. 2001-11-20: Status of Rodrigues Island changed from dependency to island region.

Other names of subdivisions:

  1. Cargados Carajos: Saint-Brandon (variant)
  2. Rodrigues: Rodriguez (obsolete)

Population history:

District 1846-08-01 1851-11-20 1861-04-08 1871-04-11 1881-04-04 1891-03-06 1901-04-01 1911-03-31 1921-05-21
Black River 6,831 10,091 17,171 11,997 15,292 15,698 14,063 14,945 14,717
Flacq 19,182 24,186 41,468 49,499 56,022 56,734 55,188 51,898 53,423
Grand Port 16,756 19,082 37,207 44,226 52,982 48,169 49,568 49,079 50,373
Moka 4,661 5,725 17,704 21,236 29,768 32,552 35,258 32,719 29,897
Pamplemousses 28,815 32,036 53,598 42,978 37,670 38,547 39,017 37,381 37,448
Plaines Wilhems 12,784 13,893 28,020 35,147 46,315 57,591 63,634 67,866 75,688
Port Louis 45,212 49,909 74,525 63,274 66,652 62,169 52,740 50,060 50,307
Rivi�re du Rempart 15,061 16,030 19,331 20,242 20,726 24,151 26,679 31,051 31,807
Rodrigues 495 693 1,108 1,431 2,068 3,162 4,829 6,584
Savanne 9,160 9,871 21,026 27,443 34,447 34,977 34,876 33,792 32,825
Total 158,462 181,318 310,743 317,150 361,305 372,656 374,185 373,620 383,069
District 1931-04-26 1944-06-11 1952-06-30 1962-06-30 1972-06-30 1983-07-02 1990-07-01 2000-07-02 2011-07-03
Black River 14,263 12,502 13,430 18,568 26,171 36,861 43,768 60,587 76,604
Flacq 52,640 50,842 56,867 73,061 89,050 107,670 112,773 126,839 135,406
Grand Port 48,619 46,533 52,709 69,023 80,719 93,180 96,667 106,665 110,907
Moka 29,283 22,863 27,961 37,245 48,610 61,209 65,176 75,479 82,302
Pamplemousses 36,847 34,131 40,663 55,899 68,948 90,466 101,666 122,252 136,268
Plaines Wilhems 95,258 120,170 149,614 208,184 258,699 303,993 321,713 358,182 362,292
Port Louis 54,435 65,962 84,539 119,950 133,996 133,702 133,073 127,855 118,431
Rivi�re du Rempart 30,792 33,238 40,323 53,309 66,995 80,993 86,779 98,854 106,267
Rodrigues 8,202 11,885 13,333 18,335 24,769 33,082 34,204 35,779 40,434
Savanne 31,101 32,944 35,309 46,380 53,011 58,789 60,841 66,356 67,906
Total 401,440 431,070 514,748 699,954 850,968 999,945 1,056,660 1,178,848 1,236,817

Data from source [7], except for 2011 census (source [8]). A few of these data disagree with those shown under Change history. Source [7] excludes "Other dependencies," i.e., Agalega Islands. For 1952, source [4] has a footnote indicating that the total includes "215 European mililary personnel and 56 crew members and passengers on ships in harbour." Source [7] must have put those 215 people in Plaines Wilhems, and omitted the 56 completely. For 1972, source [7] has moved 2,305 people from Black River to Plaines Wilhems. All totals exclude Agalega Islands.

Sources:

  1. [1] L'�valuation des effectifs de la population des pays Africains, Tome I. Groupe de D�mographie Africaine, Paris, 1982.
  2. [2] There were maps showing the wards on Mauritius Island and the zones on Rodrigues Island at http://ncb.intnet.mu/cso/report/hpcen00/Demogra/apen1.htm and http://ncb.intnet.mu/cso/report/hpcen00/Demogra/appen3.htm, respectively (retrieved 2002-12-15). The links are dead now.
  3. [3] Geographic Report No. 16, issued by the office of the Geographer, Department of State, 1971-10-27.
  4. [4] Demographic Yearbook , 7th Ed. Statistical Office of the United Nations, New York, 1955 (retrieved 2011-08-20).
  5. [5] Annual Digest of Statistics 2009 , Vol. 54. Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Central Statistics Office, 2010-07 (retrieved 2011-09-17). Contains data from sixteen censuses 1851-2000, limited to total population of the country (excluding dependencies), of Mauritius Island, and of Rodrigues Island (p. 14). Also contains 1990 and 2000 census data by district (p.17).
  6. [6] 1979 Demographic Yearbook , 31st Ed. Statistical Office, United Nations, New York, 1980 (retrieved 2011-12-28).
  7. [7] Historical Series-Census : Table 3 - Population enumerated at each census by district and sex, 1846�2000 (retrieved 2013-07-31).
  8. [8] 2011 Housing and Population Census . Volume VI, Geographical and migration characteristics. Port Louis, 2012-10 (retrieved 2013-07-31).