thumb|right|250px|Districts of Saint Lucia since at least 2001

The island nation of Saint Lucia is divided into 10 districts (formerly called Quarters). The name Quarters or Quartiers originally came from the French period in Saint Lucia (Sainte Lucie in French). The 2001 and 2010 Census of Saint Lucia refers to the first level administrative divisions as districts. The FIPS and ISO standards regularly called these divisions quarters or quartiers in French. The former district of Dauphin Quarter was merged into Gros Islet District and the former district of Praslin Quarter was merged into Micoud District.

In 1844, Henry Breen describes how Saint Lucia was divided into two districts, the eastern district on the leeward side of Saint Lucia facing the Atlantic Ocean and the western district on the windward side facing the Caribbean Sea. It was further divided into eleven quarters or parishes, i.e. Castries, Anse Laraye, Soufriere, Choiseul, Laborie, Vieux Fort, Micoud, Praslin, Dennery, Dauphin, and Gros-ilet. Each quarter or parish had a town in the coastal bay within its territory that was named the same as the quarter. Breen further talks about stipendiary magistrates introduced during the period of the apprenticeship system. These magistrates were as follows:

  1. Castries, Gros-ilet, Daughpin, and Anse Laraye
  2. Soufriere, Choiseul, Laborie
  3. Vieux Fort, Micoud, Praslin, Dennery

Still later the number of stipendiary magistrates was increased to five:

  1. Castries and Anse Laray
  2. Gros-ilet and Sauphin
  3. Soufriere and Choiseul
  4. Vieux Fort and Laborie
  5. Micoud, Dennery, and Praslin

The magistrates did not survive. However, the quarters or parishes did survive, as such, with some mergers and changes in the names.

Districts

Since the 2001 Census of Saint Lucia there have been 10 districts in Saint Lucia.

|-

!#

!District

!Population

| align="right" |65,656

| align="right" |23,296

| align="right" |

| align="right" |639 per km2, 1,656 per mi2

|-

|4

|Choiseul

| align="right" |6,128

| align="right" |2,077

| align="right" |

| align="right" |237 per km2, 612 per mi2

|-

|5

|Dennery

| align="right" |12,767

| align="right" |4,419

| align="right" |

| align="right" |177 per km2, 457 per mi2

|-

|6

|Gros Islet

| align="right" |20,872

| align="right" |9,804

| align="right" |

| align="right" |208 per km2, 539 per mi2

|-

|7

|Laborie

| align="right" |7,363

| align="right" |2,189

| align="right" |

| align="right" |218 per km2, 564 per mi2

|-

|8

|Micoud

| align="right" |16,284

| align="right" |5,623

| align="right" |

| align="right" |145 per km2, 376 per mi2

|-

|9

|Soufrière

| align="right" |7,657

| align="right" |2,886

| align="right" |

| align="right" |131 per km2, 340 per mi2

|-

|10

|Vieux Fort

| align="right" |14,754

| align="right" |5,665

| align="right" |

| align="right" |296 per km2, 768 per mi2

|-

|

|Saint Lucia

| align="right" |165,596

| align="right" |58,919

| align="right" |

| align="right" |268 per km2, 695 per mi2

|}

Notes

{| class = "Wikitable floatright"

|-

|thumb|80px|right|Dauphin Quarter

|thumb|80px|right|Praslin Quarter

|}

  • A former quarter, Dauphin Quarter was merged into Gros Islet Quarter. It was not enumerated separately in the 2010 Census. The 2001 Census shows Daphin as part of Gros Islet.

Political divisions

thumb|right|300px|Electoral boundaries of Saint Lucia

Saint Lucia electoral boundaries are based, generally, on the districts. There are 17 constituencies in Saint Lucia that are represented in the House of Assembly of Saint Lucia. A study was done in 2014 to look into variations in census and boundaries and possible expansion of the number of constituencies.

{| class="wikitable sortable"

!District

!Constituency Name

!Population

|-

|Gros Islet

|Gros Islet

| align="right"|23,242

|-

|Castries

|Babonneau

| align="right"|12,844

|-

|Castries

|Castries East

| align="right"|11,782

|-

|Castries

|Castries South

| align="right"|9,463

|-

|Castries

|Castries Central

| align="right"|7,742

|-

|Castries

|Castries South East

| align="right"|14,516

|-

|Castries

|Castries North

| align="right"|11,463

|-

|Anse la Raye and Canaries

|Anse la Raye and Canaries

| align="right"|8,363

|-

|Soufrière

|Soufrière

| align="right"|8,424

|-

|Laborie

|Laborie

| align="right"| 8,588

|-

|Vieux Fort

|Vieux Fort North

| align="right"|7,201

|-

|Vieux Fort

|Vieux Fort South

| align="right"|9,336

|-

|Micoud

|Micoud North

| align="right"|7,173

|-

|Micoud

|Micoud South

| align="right"|7,330

|-

|Dennery

|Dennery South

| align="right"|4,896

|-

|Dennery

|Dennery North

| align="right"|7,570

|-

|Choiseul

|Choiseul

| align="right"| 6,130

|}

See also

  • Commonwealth Local Government Forum-Americas
  • Geography of Saint Lucia
  • House of Assembly of Saint Lucia
  • ISO 3166-2:LC
  • List of Caribbean First-level Subdivisions by Total Area
  • List of cities in Saint Lucia

References

Additional bibliographic references: