Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

is divided into nine

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...

s. The national capital,

Honiara Honiara () is the capital and largest city of Solomon Islands, situated on the northwestern coast of Guadalcanal. , it had a population of 92,344 people. The city is served by Honiara International Airport and the seaport of Point Cruz, and li ...

, on the island of

Guadalcanal Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the se ...

, is separately governed as the country's

Capital Territory 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 ...

History

Under the

British Solomon Islands Protectorate The British Solomon Islands Protectorate was first declared over the southern Solomons in 1893, when Captain Gibson, R.N., of , declared the southern islands a British protectorate. Other islands were subsequently declared to form part o ...

, 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 Tulagi, less commonly known as Tulaghi, is a small island——in Solomon Islands, just off the south coast of Ngella Sule. The town of the same name on the island (pop. 1,750) was the capital of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate from 1 ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, 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

. At its independence in 1978, the protectorate became the sovereign state of

. 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 Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...

, and Isabel provinces, while the Eastern District was split into

Makira-Ulawa Makira-Ulawa Province is one of the nine provinces of Solomon Islands. Geography The main part of the province is Makira Island. It has a population of 40,419 (2009). The capital is Kirakira. Makira-Ulawa Province includes Makira (San Cristob ...

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

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 Rennell and Bellona is one of the nine provinces of Solomon Islands, comprising two inhabited atolls, Rennell and Bellona, or and respectively in Rennellese (a Polynesian language), as well as the uninhabited Indispensable Reef. Rennell and ...

was split from Central Province, resulting in the nine provinces of today.

Population

The population census data is from the 1999, 2009 and 2019 Censuses, as 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 Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It is predominantly the ...

increases. The figures for

Guadalcanal Province Guadalcanal Province is one of the nine provinces of Solomon Islands, consisting of the island of Guadalcanal. It is a 2,510 square mile (5,336 km2) island and is largely a jungle. Its name was given by Pedro de Ortega Valencia, born in the ...

do not include the separately-administered Capital Territory of

; 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 census total for Guadalcanal and the Capital Territory would be 179,166, which would have made it the most populous province; by 2019 the combined total would be 284,326.

Provinces

^{/sup> excluding the Capital Territory of Honiara

See also

* ISO 3166-2:SB

References

External links

Solomon Islands National Statistic Office – Population

{{DEFAULTSORT:Provinces Of Solomon Islands

Subdivisions of the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands, Provinces
Solomon Islands 1
Provinces, Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands geography-related lists}