Provinces of the Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands is divided into nine provinces. The national capital Honiara on the island of Guadalcanal is separately governed as Capital Territory.

Under the British Solomon Islands Protectorate 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.

After World War II, the protectorate was reorganised into four districts, Central, Western, Eastern, and Malaita then further subdivided into councils and the administrative centre was moved from Tulagi to Honiara

At its independence in 1978 the protectorate became the sovereign state of 'Solomon Islands', Honiara became the capital of the sovereign nation and the inherited districts and councils remained until 1981 whwn the nation was reorganised into seven provinces by splitting some of the districts into provinces: Central District was split into Central, Guadalcanal, and Isabel provinces; Eastern District was split into Makira 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-kilometre Honiara was split from Guadalcanal province and became a separately-governed Capital Territory. The city serves as the capital of Guadalcanal province and of Solomon Islands itself.

In 1995, Choiseul was split from Western province, and Rennell and Bellona was split from Central province, making the nine provinces of today.

The population census data is from the 1999 census; the 2009 population estimates are those provided by the Solomon Islands National Statistics office. They show how the population has increased in the past decade for most of the provinces, especially the more urban ones, as urbanization grows.

The figures for Guadalcanal Province do not include the separately-administered Capital Territory of Honiara; if included, that province would have had a total population of 109,382 in 1999, when it was the second largest province; by 2009, the combined estimate for Guadalcanal and the Capital Territory would be 157,745, making it the largest province. The Capital Territory is ranked as n/a below, and does not count in the order.

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