Elías Piña Province

Elías Piña
Province
Country  Dominican Republic
Capital Comendador
 - elevation 395 m (1,296 ft)
 - coordinates 18°53′0″N 71°42′0″W / 18.88333°N 71.70000°W / 18.88333; -71.70000Coordinates: 18°53′0″N 71°42′0″W / 18.88333°N 71.70000°W / 18.88333; -71.70000
Area 1,426.20 km2 (551 sq mi)
Population 84,632 (2014) [1]
Density 59 / km2 (153 / sq mi)
Province since 1942
Subdivisions 6 municipalities
7 municipal districts
Congresspersons 1 Senator
2 Deputies
Timezone EST (UTC-4)
Area code 1-809 1-829 1-849
ISO 3166-2 DO-07
Postal Code 73000
Location of the Elías Piña Province

Elías Piña (Spanish pronunciation: [eˈli.as ˈpiɲa]) is one of the 31 provinces of the Dominican Republic. It is located in the western part of the country, on the border with Haiti. Its capital city is Comendador.

It was created on 1942 with the name San Rafael. In 1965, its name was changed to Estrelleta and, finally, in 1972 it got its current name. It was a municipio of the San Juan province before being elevated to the category of province.

Location

The Elías Piña province has the Dajabón and Santiago Rodríguez provinces to the north, the San Juan province to the east, the Independencia province to the south and the Republic of Haiti to the west.

Origin of name

Elías Piña was an officer of the Dominican army during the Dominican-Haitian War. He was born in La Margarita, close to Comendador and died in 1845 when he was attacking a fortified position in Bánica.

Municipalities

In the province, there are six municipalities (municipios) and seven municipal districts (distrito municipal) within them. The municipalities and its municipal districts (M.D.) are:

Population

The following is a sortable table of the municipalities and municipal districts with population figures as of the 2014 estimate. Urban population are those living in the seats (cabeceras literally heads) of municipalities or of municipal districts. Rural population are those living in the districts (Secciones literally sections) and neighborhoods (Parajes literally places) outside them.The population figures are from the 2014 population estimate.[2]

Name Total population Urban population Rural population
Comendador 43,671 33,459 10,212
El Llano 7,923 1,524 6,399
Hondo Valle 12,200 4,158 8,042
Juan Santiago 5,023 1,652 3,371
Pedro Santana 7,993 4,125 3,868
San Francisco de Bánica 7,822 1,784 6,038
Elías Piña province 84,632 46,702 37,930

Geography

The Cordillera Central ("Central mountain chain") is found in the northern part of the province, and the Sierra de Neiba runs across the southern half. Between those two mountain ranges, there are several valleys formed by the Artibonite River and its tributaries.

Climate

The climate of the province is a tropical climate, hot most of the year, but it is cooler on the mountains.

Rivers

The main river is the Artibonite that, in some places, marks the Dominican-Haitian border. Other rivers are Macasías, Tocino, Joca and Vallecito, all of them tributaries of the Artibonite.

Economy

As in all border provinces in the Dominican Republic, there is little economic development. The trade with Haiti is important, above all in Comendador. On the mountains, coffee and beans are important products. Potatoes are also produced in the south (Sierra de Neiba).

References

  1. ↑ Consejo Nacional de Población y Familia. "Estamaciones y Proyecciones de la Población Dominicana por Regiones, Provincias, Municipios y Distritos Municipales, 2014" (PDF) (in Spanish). Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  2. ↑ Consejo Nacional de Población y Familia. "Estamaciones y Proyecciones de la Población Dominicana por Regiones, Provincias, Municipios y Distritos Municipales, 2014" (PDF) (in Spanish). Retrieved 2014-02-02.
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