Since 2016,
Mali
Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...
has been divided into ten
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
s and one
capital district
A capital district, capital region or capital territory is normally a specially designated administrative division where a country's seat of government is located. As such, in a federal model of government, no state or territory has any poli ...
. A reorganization of the country from eight to nineteen regions was passed into law in 2012, but of the new regions, only
Taoudénit (partitioned from Tombouctou Region) and
Ménaka
Ménaka ( Berber: ⵎⵏⴾⴰ) is a town and urban commune in Ménaka Cercle and Ménaka Region in eastern Mali. It is the seat and the largest town in the ''cercle'' and region. The town is set amidst the rocky outcrops of the Ader Douchi hill ...
(formerly
Ménaka Cercle
Ménaka Cercle is an administrative subdivision of Ménaka Region, Mali. Its administrative center is the town of Ménaka. Ménaka Cercle's population as of 2009 was 56,104 people. Ménaka is located in the middle of the Sahara Desert, along Wad ...
in Gao Region) have begun to be implemented.
Each of the regions bears the name of its capital. The regions are divided into 56
cercles. The cercles and the capital district are divided into 703
communes
An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, relig ...
.
Demographics
The most populated region is
Sikasso
Sikasso ( Bambara: ߛߌߞߊߛߏ tr. Sikaso) is a city in the south of Mali and the capital of the Sikasso Cercle and the Sikasso Region. It is Mali's second largest city with 225,753 residents in the 2009 census.
History
Sikasso was founded ...
with 2.648 million people, and the least most populated is
Kidal
Kidal ( Tuareg Berber: ⴾⴸⵍ, KDL, Kidal) is a town and commune in the desert region of northern Mali. The town lies northeast of Gao and is the capital of the Kidal Cercle and the Kidal Region. The commune has an area of about and includes ...
with just 38 thousand people.
Geography
Five regions are composed of mainly desert, however, they also have half the country's land mass. The largest region is
Taoudénit and the smallest is
Ségou
Ségou (; bm, ߛߋߓߎ, italic=no, ) is a town and an urban commune in south-central Mali that lies northeast of Bamako on the right bank of the River Niger. The town is the capital of the Ségou Cercle and the Ségou Region. With 130,690 i ...
, excluding
Bamako
Bamako ( bm, ߓߡߊ߬ߞߐ߬ ''Bàmakɔ̌'', ff, 𞤄𞤢𞤥𞤢𞤳𞤮 ''Bamako'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mali, with a 2009 population of 1,810,366 and an estimated 2022 population of 2.81 million. It is located on t ...
.
Regions
The regions are numbered, originally west to east, with
Roman numerals
Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, eac ...
. The capital
Bamako
Bamako ( bm, ߓߡߊ߬ߞߐ߬ ''Bàmakɔ̌'', ff, 𞤄𞤢𞤥𞤢𞤳𞤮 ''Bamako'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mali, with a 2009 population of 1,810,366 and an estimated 2022 population of 2.81 million. It is located on t ...
is administered separately and is in its own district.
The ten regions and the Bamako District are listed below. The population figures are from the 1998 and 2009 censuses.
[.]
See also
*
List of regions of Mali by Human Development Index
This is a list of regions of Mali (with 2012 borders) by Human Development Index as of 2018.
Note: Gao Region (including the newly created Ménaka Region) and Kidal Region are grouped and have their own HDI.
See also
* List of countries by Hu ...
*
Cercles of Mali
A cercle is the second-level administrative unit in Mali. Mali is divided into eight ''régions'' and one capital district (Bamako); the ''régions'' are subdivided into 49 ''cercles''. These subdivisions bear the name of their principal city.
...
*
ISO 3166-2:ML
References
{{Authority control
Subdivisions of Mali
Mali, Regions
Mali 1
Regions, Mali
Mali geography-related lists