Provinces of Argentina

Argentina is subdivided in 23 provinces (Spanish: provincias, singular - provincia) and 1 federal district (capital federal). These provinces have their own constitutions, but exist under a federal system.

Provinces are then divided into departments (Spanish: departamentos, singular - departamento) except for the Buenos Aires Province, which is divided into partidos.

Geography

The country is usually divided in 6 different regions as seen in the adjacent table, though some separate the Pampas in Pampas' plains and Pampas' sierras.

Argentine Northwest: Jujuy, Salta, Tucumán, Catamarca, La Rioja
Gran Chaco: Formosa, Chaco, Santiago del Estero
Mesopotamia: Misiones, Entre Ríos, Corrientes
Cuyo: San Juan, Mendoza, San Luis
The Pampas: Córdoba, Santa Fe, La Pampa, Buenos Aires
Patagonia: Rio Negro, Neuquén, Chubut, Santa Cruz, Tierra del Fuego, Argentine Antarctica^*

^* Claim in suspension by Antarctic Treaty

Even though there are provinces that belong to more than one region, they are shown here within the most representative region. In the Tucumán province, the smallest of Argentina, coexist 3 regions: the Pampas to the south, Gran Chaco to the northeast, and Argentine Northwest.

The location of the provinces

* federal district''

Demographics

Table of provinces with Population, Area and Density, and the associated rankings (rnk) among the 23 provinces and the federal district of Buenos Aires city.

Province/District	Capital	Population (2001)	rnk	Area (km²)	rnk	Density (p/km²)	rnk
Buenos Aires	-	2,776,138	4	203	24	13,675.6	1
Buenos Aires Province	La Plata	13,827,203	1	307,571	1	44.95	3
Catamarca Province	San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca	334,568	20	102,602	11	3.26	19
Chaco Province	Resistencia	984,446	9	99,633	12	9.9	11
Chubut Province	Rawson	413,237	18	224,686	3	1.84	23
Córdoba Province	Córdoba	3,066,801	2	165,321	5	18.6	6
Corrientes Province	Corrientes	930,991	11	88,199	16	10.6	10
Entre Ríos Province	Paraná	1,158,147	7	78,781	17	14.7	7
Formosa Province	Formosa	486,559	16	72,066	19	6.75	14
Jujuy Province	San Salvador de Jujuy	611,888	14	53,219	20	11.5	8
La Pampa Province	Santa Rosa	299,294	21	143,440	8	2.0	22
La Rioja Province	La Rioja	289,983	22	89,680	14	3.23	20
Mendoza Province	Mendoza	1,579,651	5	148,827	7	10.61	9
Misiones Province	Posadas	965,522	10	29,801	21	32.4	4
Neuquén Province	Neuquén	474.155	17	94,078	13	5.0	16
Río Negro Province	Viedma	552,822	15	203,013	4	2.72	21
Salta Province	Salta	1,079,051	8	155,488	6	6.94	12
San Juan Province	San Juan	620,023	13	89,651	15	6.92	13
San Luis Province	San Luis	367,933	19	76,748	18	4.8	17
Santa Cruz Province	Río Gallegos	196,958	23	243,943	2	0.81	24
Santa Fe Province	Santa Fe	3,000,701	3	133,007	10	22.56	5
Santiago del Estero Province	Santiago del Estero	804,457	12	136,351	9	5.9	15
Tierra del Fuego Province	Ushuaia	101,079	24	21,263¹	23	4.75¹	18
Tucumán Province	San Miguel de Tucumán	1,338,523	6	22,524	22	59.42	2

note ¹:without claims on Falkland/Malvinas Islands or Argentine Antarctica.

Politics

The internal products of the provinces are merged into the national product, and then the national budget is decided, including what percentage of it is given to each province. Provinces are free to choose their own utilization of the assigned percentage of the national product.

Each province has also its own government, with a governor, a senate and a deputy chamber. It is not uncommon though, for the national government to intervene in a province under internal instability or after a corruption scandal, designating an intervenor to replace the local government until the situation is normalized.

Many provinces have had, or still have, governments controlled by a single family. This is the case of the Rodriguez Saáin San Luis Province, the Saadi[http://www.rebelion.org/argentina/040330esquivel.htm in Catamarca Province, and many others, often involved in corruption or criminal scandals that are never solved, such as the murder of María Soledad Case in Catamarca.

History

The north of Argentina was the first part of the present country to be explored by the Spanish colonisation, searching for the routes that would allow them to bring the gold and silver extracted in the Viceroyalty of Peru to the port of Buenos Aires.

Santiago del Estero, in the year 1553, was the first city founded in the territory with such ends, but lost its importance when Tucumán and Salta replaced it as mid-stops to the Atlantic coast when these two cities secured from the aboriginal attacks, and economically strengthened.

The centre of the country was also soon explored and inhabited, being the most important of the first founded cities the city of Córdoba, that became not only a political but also cultural centre with the creation of the first university, the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba in 1622.

Most capital cities of the centre-northern Argentina were founded before the year 1600, except for Santa Rosa in La Pampa Province, and Resistencia in Chaco Province.

To the south of the Colorado River, the Patagonia reminded under control of the aboriginals. The river itself served as natural frontier.

It was not until the infamous Roca's Conquest of the Desert, started in 1879, when the southern part of Argentina was conquered in what meant the near annihilation of the aboriginal people living in these lands.

The current political division of the provinces of Patagonia was set in 1884 and has not been changed since then, except between 1944 and 1955 when a stripe covering the southern part of Chubut Province and the northern part of Santa Cruz Province was named Comodoro Rivadavia Military Zone.

But the National Territories didn't have provincial status until the 20th century. They where named provinces in 1957, except for Tierra del Fuego Province named in 1990.

Due to the late conquest of the south of the country and the cold weather that reigns in it, most people live in the central or northern provinces, but recent immigration to the south, mainly from Buenos Aires Province and Buenos Aires city, is demising this difference.

External links

Geography of Argentina | Lists of subnational entities | Subdivisions of Argentina