Department Departamento (Spanish)
Category	Unitary state
Location	Oriental Republic of Uruguay
Number	19 departments
Subdivisions	Municipalities

Politics of Uruguay
Constitution Current constitution (1997) Previous constitutions 1830 1918 1934 1942 1952 1967
Executive President (list) Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou Cabinet
Legislative Vice President Beatriz Argimón General Assembly Senate President Chamber of Representatives President Palacio Legislativo
Judiciary Supreme Court
Administrative divisions Departments Municipalities
Elections Political parties Recent elections General: 2014 2019 2024 Municipal: 2010 2015 2020 Electoral Court Ley de Lemas (voting system)
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Uruguay consists of 19 departments (departamentos). Each department has a legislature called a Departmental Board. The Intendente is the department's chief executive.

History[edit]

The first division of the Republic into six departments occurred on 27 January 1816. In February of the same year, two more departments were formed, and in 1828 one more was added. When the First Constitution was signed in 1830, there were nine departments. These were the departments of Montevideo, Maldonado, Canelones, San José, Colonia, Soriano, Paysandú, Durazno and Cerro Largo. At that time, the department of Paysandú occupied all the territory north of the Río Negro, which included the current departments of Artigas, Rivera, Tacuarembó, Salto, Paysandú and Río Negro.

On 17 June 1837 a new division of Uruguay was made and this northern territory was divided in three parts by the creation of the departments of Salto and Tacuarembó. At the same time the department of Minas (which was eventually renamed to Lavalleja) was created out of parts of Cerro Largo and Maldonado. Then in 1856 the department of Florida was created and on 7 July 1880 the department of Río Negro was split from Paysandú and the department of Rocha was split from Maldonado. In 1884 the department of Treinta y Tres was formed from parts of Cerro Largo and Minas, while also the department of Artigas was split from Salto, and in the same year the department of Rivera was split from Tacuarembó. Finally in the end of 1885 the department of Flores was split from San José.

Series of maps showing the gradual formation of the actual 19 departments of Uruguay.

List of departments[edit]

Flag or COA	Department	ISO 3166-2 code	Formation	Area (km2)	Population (2011)[1]	Density (/km2)	Capital	Capital population
	Artigas	UY-AR	1884 (from Salto)	11,928	73,378	6.15	Artigas	40,658
	Canelones	UY-CA	1816 (as Villa de Guadalupe)	4,536	520,187	114.68	Canelones	19,865
	Cerro Largo	UY-CL	1821	13,648	84,698	6.21	Melo	53,245
	Colonia	UY-CO	1816	6,106	123,203	20.18	Colonia del Sacramento	26,231
	Durazno	UY-DU	1822 (as Entre Ríos Yí y Negro)	11,643	57,088	4.90	Durazno	34,372
	Flores	UY-FS	1885 (from San José)	5,144	25,050	4.87	Trinidad	21,429
	Florida	UY-FD	1856 (from San José)	10,417	67,048	6.44	Florida	33,640
	Lavalleja	UY-LA	1837 (as Minas)	10,016	58,815	5.87	Minas	45,638
	Maldonado	UY-MA	1816 (as San Fernando de Maldonado)	4,793	164,300	34.28	Maldonado	62,592
	Montevideo	UY-MO	1816	530	1,319,108	2,489	Montevideo	1,319,108
	Paysandú	UY-PA	1820	13,922	113,124	8.13	Paysandú	76,429
	Río Negro	UY-RN	1868 (from Paysandú)	9,282	54,765	5.90	Fray Bentos	24,406
	Rivera	UY-RV	1884 (as Tacuarembó)	9,370	103,493	11.04	Rivera	64,465
	Rocha	UY-RO	1880 (from Maldonado)	10,551	68,088	6.45	Rocha	25,422
	Salto	UY-SA	1837 (from Paysandú)	14,163	124,878	8.82	Salto	104,028
	San José	UY-SJ	1816	4,992	108,309	21.70	San José de Mayo	36,747
	Soriano	UY-SO	1816 (as Santo Domingo Soriano)	9,008	82,595	9.17	Mercedes	41,975
	Tacuarembó	UY-TA	1837 (from Paysandú)	15,438	90,053	5.83	Tacuarembó	54,757
	Treinta y Tres	UY-TT	1884 (from Cerro Largo and Lavalleja)	9,676	48,134	4.97	Treinta y Tres	25,477

Statutory framework[edit]

Establishment of departments[edit]

The General Assembly has the powers to create new departments, requiring a special majority vote of two thirds of the number of members of both chambers, as provided by the Constitution in article 85. The General Assembly can also define their borders, requiring the same majority.^[2]

Politics and governance[edit]

The basic statutory framework of departments is defined by Section XVI of the Constitution. Each department has Executive and Legislative branches, the former consisting of the Intendant and the latter by the Departmental Board. The Municipal Organic Law No. 9515 regulates more specific details of these rules.^[3]

Finances[edit]

The sources of financial resources of the departmental governments are detailed in article 297 of the Constitution, being the departmental taxes, national taxes whose administration was granted to departments, earnings from services or incomes, money obtained from sanctions, donations, inheritances and bequests received and accepted, and their own part of the National Budged that they were granted by Budget Laws.^[4]

Municipalities[edit]

Since 2009 (Law No. 18567 of 13 September 2009),^[5] the Uruguayan departments have been subdivided into municipalities. As Uruguay is a very small country (3 million inhabitants, of which roughly half live in the national capital), this system has been widely criticized as a waste of resources. Nevertheless, in the municipal elections of 2010 the local authorities were elected and they assumed office months later. Currently there are 125 municipalities scattered all over the country.

See also[edit]

• List of postal codes in Uruguay
• ISO 3166-2:UY

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Congreso Nacional de Intendentes (in Spanish)