Administrative divisions of Morocco

In Morocco, the 75 second-level administrative subdivisions are 13 prefectures and 62 provinces. They are subdivisions of the 12 regions of Morocco.[1] Each prefecture or province is subdivided into arrondissements (only in prefectures of some metropolitan areas), municipalities (communes, sing. commune) or urban municipalities (communes urbaines, sing. commune urbaine) in other urban areas, and districts (cercles, sing. cercle) in rural areas. The districts are subdivided into rural municipalities (communes rurales, sing. commune rural). One prefecture (Casablanca) is also subdivided into préfectures d'arrondissements (sing. préfecture d'arrondissements), similar to districts (cercles) except they are grouping a few arrondissements instead of rural municipalities.

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Note: The arrondissements and (urban) municipalities should probably be thought of as fourth-level subdivisions, on the same level as the rural municipalities, but they are not part of any district.[2]

Moroccan administrative division

Current administrative divisions

[1]

Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima Region

Oriental Region

Fès-Meknès Region

Rabat-Salé-Kénitra Region

Béni Mellal-Khénifra Region

Casablanca-Settat Region

Marrakech-Safi Region

Drâa-Tafilalet Region

Souss-Massa Region

Western Sahara (most under de facto Moroccan administration)
See also: International recognition of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and Political status of Western Sahara

Most of Western Sahara is administered de facto by Morocco (where the area is informally named the Southern Provinces by the Moroccan government and media); the rest is administered by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

The United Nations considers the territory to be disputed, as it was not legally transferred by Spain when it abandoned its former colony in 1975, and several states (notably members of the African Union) either recognize the SADR as the sole legitimate government of Western Sahara, or consider that the status of the region (either as an independent state, or as part of Morocco, or as part of Mauritania that initially claimed a part of it) has still not been autodetermined by the local population prior to its annexation. The United Nations has no legal instruments confirming the claims on the region made by the governments of Morocco or the self-proclaimed SADR, and in international treaties it is still a formal part of Spain that remains to be properly decolonized, even though Spain and Mauritania no longer claim any part of it.

Since the annexation, the situation is worsened by the fact that most of the historic Western Saharan population has fled either to the remaining free zone (now isolated by the Moroccan militarized berm), or to refugee camps in neighbouring countries (notably Algeria), due to lack of resources in the free zone. The remaining native Western Saharan population now lives as a minority among the new Moroccan occupants. The absence of a legal government with a permanent administration in the free zone has also introduced a threat to the security of the surrounding countries in the Saharan and Sahel regions, including Morocco itself.

Guelmim-Oued Noun Region

Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra Region

Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab Region

Regions of Morocco
Geographic Code Region Capital Subdivisions Population (2014)[3] Area[4] Population density
# of provinces and prefectures # of communes Population % Area in km2 %
1 Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceïma Tanger 7 110 3,556,729 10.51 13,712 1.93 259.39
2 L'Oriental Oujda 8 147 2,314,346 6.84 36,241 5.10 63.86
3 Fès-Meknès Fès 9 194 4,236,892 12.52 40,075 5.64 105.72
4 Rabat-Salé-Kénitra Rabat 7 114 4,580,866 13.53 18,194 2.56 251.78
5 Béni Mellal-Khénifra Béni Mellal 6 164 2,520,776 7.45 41,033 5.77 61.43
6 Casablanca-Settat Casablanca 9 153 6,861,739 20.27 19,448 2.74 352.82
7 Marrakech-Safi Marrakech 8 251 4,520,569 13.36 39,167 5.51 115.42
8 Drâa-Tafilalet Errachidia 5 109 1,635,008 4.83 132,167 18.59 12.37
9 Souss-Massa Agadir 6 175 2,676,847 7.91 53,789 7.57 49.77
10 Guelmim-Oued Noun Guelmim 4 53 433,757 1.28 46,108 6.49 9.41
11 Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra Laâyoune 4 20 367,758 1.09 140,018 19.7 2.63
12 Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab Dakhla 2 13 142,955 0.42 130,898 18.41 1.09
Total 75 1503 33,848,242 100 710,850 100 47.62
Administrative divisions of Morocco

Administrative divisions before 2015

Chaouia-Ouardigha Region

Greater Casablanca Region

Tadla-Azilal Region

Doukkala-Abda Region

Marrakech-Tensift-El Haouz Region

Fès-Boulemane Region

Taza-Al Hoceima-Taounate Region

Gharb-Chrarda-Béni Hssen Region

Rabat-Salé-Zemmour-Zaer Region

Tangier-Tétouan Region

Oriental Region

Meknès-Tafilalet Region

Souss-Massa-Drâa Region

Guelmim-Es Semara Region

Laâyoune-Boujdour-Sakia El Hamra Region

Oued Ed-Dahab-Lagouira Region

Wilaya

In Morocco, a wilaya is an administrative division created since 1981 that "brings together many provinces or prefectures or both at the same time, and is intended to endow big urban units such as Casablanca with an administrative organization capable of meeting the needs that emerge from these expanding cities and their growing populations."[5] Therefore, strictly speaking, the level of wilayas are between the regions and prefectures/provinces (although wilayas only cover urban areas). However, they are often used synonymous with regions or prefectures/provinces in common usage.[6]

See also

References
  1. "Population légale d'après les résultats du RGPH 2014 sur le Bulletin officiel N° 6354" (PDF). Haut-Commissariat au Plan (in Arabic). Retrieved 2015-07-11.
  2. HCP.ma List of districts and municipalities (communes) of Morocco by province/prefecture Archived 2009-04-18 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Maaroufi, Youssef. "Note sur les premiers résultats du Recensement Général de la Population et de l'Habitat 2014".
  4. "table in Arabic". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-09-26.
  5. The Wilaya of Grand Casablanca Archived May 1, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  6. Wilayas, Prefectures and Provinces Archived July 19, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
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