Provinces of Argentina

Provinces of Argentina
Category	Federated province
Location	Argentina
Number	23
Government	Province government

Argentina
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Argentina is subdivided into twenty-three provinces (Spanish: provincias, singular provincia) and one autonomous city (Ciudad autónoma de Buenos Aires, informally the Capital Federal). The city and the provinces have their own constitutions, but exist under a federal system.

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

First-level Political divisions of Argentina

Provinces of Argentina and Autonomous City of Buenos Aires

Autonomous City of Buenos Airesa Buenos Aires Province Catamarca Chaco Chubut Córdoba Corrientes Entre Ríos Formosa Jujuy La Pampa La Rioja Mendoza Misiones Neuquén Río Negrob Salta San Juan San Luis Santa Cruz Santa Fe Santiago del Estero Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Surc Tucumán a Not a Province. Autonomous City and seat of National Government. (Also known as Buenos Aires City). b or Provincia del Río Negro. c Tierra del Fuego Province includes claims over Argentine Antarctica, Falkland Islands, and South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Argentina

Flag	Province/District	Capital	Official Language	Population (2010)	Rank	Area (km²)	Rank	Density (/km²)	Rank
	Buenos Aires City	--		70062891082000000002,891,082	4	7002203000000000000203	24	700414241800000000014,241.8	1
	Buenos Aires	La Plata		700715594428000000015,594,428	1	7005307571000000000307,571	1	700150700000000000050.7	3
	Catamarca	San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca		7005367820000000000367,820	20	7005102602000000000102,602	11	70003600000000000003.6	20
	Chaco	Resistencia		70061053466000000001,053,466	10	700499633000000000099,633	12	700110600000000000010.6	11
	Chubut	Rawson	Spanish, Welsh	7005506668000000000506,668	18	7005224686000000000224,686	3	70002300000000999992.3	22
	Córdoba	Córdoba City		70063304825000000003,304,825	2	7005165321000000000165,321	5	700120000000000000020.0	6
	Corrientes	Corrientes City	Spanish, Guaraní	7005993338000000000993,338	11	700488199000000000088,199	16	700111300000000000011.3	10
	Entre Ríos	Paraná		70061236300000000001,236,300	7	700478781000000000078,781	17	700115700000000000015.7	7
	Formosa	Formosa City		7005527895000000000527,895	17	700472066000000000072,066	19	70007300000000000007.3	14
	Jujuy	San Salvador de Jujuy		7005672260000000000672,260	14	700453219000000000053,219	20	700112600000000000012.6	8
	La Pampa	Santa Rosa		7005316940000000000316,940	22	7005143440000000000143,440	8	70002200000000000002.2	23
	La Rioja	La Rioja City		7005331847000000000331,847	21	700489680000000000089,680	14	70003700000000000003.7	19
	Mendoza	Mendoza City		70061741610000000001,741,610	5	7005148827000000000148,827	7	700111700000000000011.7	9
	Misiones	Posadas		70061097829000000001,097,829	9	700429801000000000029,801	21	700136800999990000036.8	4
	Neuquén	Neuquén City		7005550334000000000550,334	16	700494078000000000094,078	13	70005800000000000005.8	17
	Río Negro	Viedma		7005633374000000000633,374	15	7005203013000000000203,013	4	70003100000000000003.1	21
	Salta	Salta City		70061215207000000001,215,207	8	7005155488000000000155,488	6	70007800000000000007.8	12
	San Juan	San Juan City		7005680427000000000680,427	13	700489651000000000089,651	15	70007600000000000007.6	13
	San Luis	San Luis City		7005431588000000000431,588	19	700476748000000000076,748	18	70005600000000999995.6	18
	Santa Cruz	Río Gallegos		7005272524000000000272,524	23	7005243943000000000243,943	2	70001100000000000001.1	24
	Santa Fe	Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz		70063200736000000003,200,736	3	7005133007000000000133,007	10	700124100000000000024.1	5
	Santiago del Estero	Santiago del Estero City		7005896461000000000896,461	12	7005136351000000000136,351	9	70006600000000000006.6	15
	Tierra del Fuego	Ushuaia		7005126190000000000126,190	24	700421263000000000021,263a	23	70005800000000000005.8a	16
	Tucumán	San Miguel de Tucumán		70061448200000000001,448,200	6	700422524000000000022,524	22	700164300000000000064.3	2

^a Not including claims to the Falkland Islands and the Argentine Antarctica.

Politics

See also: List of Governors in Argentina

Each province has also its own government, with a provincial constitution, a set of provincial laws and justice system, a supreme court, a governor, an autonomous police force (independent of the Federal Police), and a congress: in eight provinces the parliament is constituted by an upper chamber (senate) and a lower chamber (deputies), while in the remaining fifteen provinces and in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires the congress has just one chamber.

On occasion the national government intervenes in a province under internal instability or after a corruption scandal, designating an intervenor to replace the local government until the situation is normalized: since the return of democracy to the country in 1983, four provinces were intervened, namely Catamarca, Corrientes (twice), Santiago del Estero (twice) and Tucumán.

During the 20th century, some provinces have had governments traditionally controlled by a single family (i.e. the Saadi family in Catamarca, or the Sapag family in Neuquén); in one case, it is still the situation as of 2009: the Province of San Luis was ruled almost without a break by the Rodríguez Saá family since December 1983.

The internal products of the provinces are merged into the national product when the national budget is decided. The share of the budget given to each province is decided based on each province's individual contribution to the national budget. Provinces are free to choose their own utilization of their assigned percentages of the national product.

History

Main article: History of Argentina

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 1550, 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 remained 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.

A law from 1862 provided that Argentine territories outside the frontiers of the provinces would be called national territories. Thus in 1884 the territories of Misiones, Formosa, Chaco, La Pampa, Neuquén, Rió Negro, Chubut, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego were established. A frontier dispute with Chile in 1900 resulted in an agreement which created the national territory of Los Andes, whose territories were incorporated into Jujuy, Salta and Catamarca in 1943.

La Pampa and Chaco became provinces in 1951. Misiones did so in 1953, and Formosa, Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut and Santa Cruz in 1955. The last national territory, Tierra del Fuego, became a province in 1990.

Due to the late conquest of the south of the country and the prevailing cold weather, most people live in the central or northern provinces. Recent immigration to the south, mainly from Buenos Aires Province and Buenos Aires city, is lessening this difference.

Geographical Regions

Main article: Geography of Argentina

The country is also divided into six or seven regions (seven when The Pampas is divided into the Pampas' plains and Pampas' sierras):

Region	Provinces included
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

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 three regions: the Pampas to the south, Gran Chaco to the northeast, and Argentine Northwest.

See also

• List of Governors in Argentina
• ISO 3166-2:AR, the ISO codes for the provinces of Argentina.
• List of Argentine Provinces by Human Development Index
• List of Argentine provinces by GDP (nominal)
• List of Argentine provinces by GDP (nominal) per capita
• Comparison between Argentine provinces and countries by GDP (PPP) per capita

External links

• Argentine provinces
• (Spanish) Information of Argentine provinces
• (Spanish) Provincias Argentinas
• (Spanish) Territorial Division
• Provinces' Flags and Governors since 1983