| Provinces and an Autonomous City of Argentina | |
|---|---|
 Argentina's provinces. This map includes territorial claims on the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and a portion of Antarctica, outlined in red. | |
| Category | Federated state |
| Location | Argentina |
| Number | 23 Provinces 1 Autonomous city |
| Populations | Smallest:Tierra del Fuego Province, 190,641 Largest:Buenos Aires Province, 17,569,053 |
| Areas | Smallest:Tierra del Fuego Province, 21,263 km² (province),Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, 203 km² Largest:Buenos Aires Province, 307,571 km² |
| Government | |
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 Argentina portal |
Argentina has 23provinces (Spanish:provincias, singularprovincia) and oneautonomous city,Buenos Aires, which serves as the federal capital, as determined byCongress.[1]
The provinces and the capital have their own constitutions and exist under afederal system.
During theWar of Independence, cities and their surrounding areas became provinces through local councils (cabildos). This process was finalized during the Anarchy of the Year XX, forming the first 13 provinces.
Jujuy seceded fromSalta in 1834, and the thirteen provinces became fourteen. After seceding for a decade,Buenos Aires Province accepted the 1853Constitution of Argentina in 1861, and its capital city was made a federal territory in 1880.[2]
A law from 1862 designated asnational territories those territories under federal control but outside the frontiers of the provinces. In 1884 they served as bases for the establishment of thegovernorates of Misiones, Formosa, Chaco, La Pampa, Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego.[3] The agreement about a frontier dispute with Chile in 1900 created the National Territory of Los Andes; its lands were incorporated into Jujuy, Salta andCatamarca in 1943.[2]La Pampa andChaco became provinces in 1951.Misiones did so in 1953, andFormosa,Neuquén,Río Negro,Chubut andSanta Cruz, in 1955. The last national territory, Tierra del Fuego, became theTierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur Province in 1990.[2] This province nominally includes Argentina's claims to theFalkland Islands andSouth Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and to asegment ofAntarctica that overlaps with theBritish andChilean claims on that continent.
Argentina is a federation of twenty-three provinces and oneautonomous city,Buenos Aires. Provinces are divided for administration purposes intodepartments andmunicipalities, except forBuenos Aires Province, which is divided intopartidos andlocalidades. Buenos Aires City itself is divided intocommunes (comuna) and non-officialneighbourhoods (barrios).
Provinces hold all the power that they chose not to delegate to thefederal government;[4] they must be representative commonwealths and must not contradict theConstitution.[5] Beyond this, they are fully autonomous: they enact their own constitutions,[6] freely organize their local governments,[7] and own and manage their natural and financial resources.[8] Thus, each province has its own set of provincial laws and justice system, a supreme court, agovernor, anautonomous police force, and acongress; in eight provinces, the legislature isbicameral, comprising anupper chamber (the Senate) and alower chamber (the House of Deputies), while in the remaining fifteen provinces and in Buenos Aires City, it isunicameral.[9][A]
In case of sedition, insurrection, territorial invasion, or any other emerging threats against the laws of the nation on any province or the federal capital, the Congress has the authority to declare afederal intervention on the compromised district,[11] even in the absence of a formal request by the affected part.[12] When Congress is in recess and thus unable to intervene, the President is entitled to decree such intervention, but this executive order is subject to Congressional override upon the Houses' immediate reassembly.[13] Once the intervention is declared the compromised district's government is immediately dissolved—in whole or in part depending on Congressional decision—and the President appoints a representative or intervenor, who will serve for a short time until the emergency is solved. Since 1983 four provinces were intervened, namely Catamarca, Corrientes (twice), Santiago del Estero (twice), and Tucumán.[14]
During the 20th century, some provinces have had governments that were traditionally controlled by a single family (i.e. the Saadi family in Catamarca, or the Sapag family in Neuquén); in one case, it is still the same situation as of 2009: the province of San Luis was ruled almost without a break by theRodríguez Saá family since December 1983.[15]
Article 61 of the Constitution of the city ofBuenos Aires states that "Suffrage is free, equal, secret, universal, compulsory and not accumulative. The foreign residents enjoy this right, with the correlative obligations, on equal terms with Argentine citizens registered in this district, in the terms established by the law."[16]
| Flag | Province | Capital | Secondary capital[18][B] | HASC subdivision code | Population (2022)[19] | Area[19] | Density per km2[19] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Autonomous City of Buenos Aires | Buenos Aires | N/A | DF | 3,121,707 | 205.9 km2 (79.5 sq mi) | 15,161.3 |
 | Buenos Aires | La Plata | La Matanza andGeneral Pueyrredón | BA | 17,523,996 | 305,907 km2 (118,111 sq mi) | 57.3 |
 | Catamarca | San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca | Tinogasta | CT | 429,562 | 101,486 km2 (39,184 sq mi) | 4.2 |
 | Chaco | Resistencia | Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña | CC | 1,129,606 | 99,763 km2 (38,519 sq mi) | 11.3 |
 | Chubut | Rawson | Comodoro Rivadavia | CH | 592,621 | 224,302 km2 (86,603 sq mi) | 2.6 |
 | Córdoba | Córdoba | Río Cuarto | CB | 3,840,905 | 164,708 km2 (63,594 sq mi) | 23.3 |
 | Corrientes | Corrientes | Goya | CN | 1,212,696 | 89,123 km2 (34,411 sq mi) | 13.6 |
 | Entre Ríos | Paraná | Concordia | ER | 1,425,578 | 78,384 km2 (30,264 sq mi) | 18.2 |
 | Formosa | Formosa | Formosa | FM | 607,419 | 75,488 km2 (29,146 sq mi) | 8.0 |
 | Jujuy | San Salvador de Jujuy | San Pedro de Jujuy | JY | 811,611 | 53,244 km2 (20,558 sq mi) | 15.2 |
 | La Pampa | Santa Rosa | General Pico | LP | 361,859 | 143,493 km2 (55,403 sq mi) | 2.5 |
 | La Rioja | La Rioja | Chilecito | LR | 383,865 | 91,494 km2 (35,326 sq mi) | 4.2 |
 | Mendoza | Mendoza | Guaymallén | MZ | 2,043,540 | 149,069 km2 (57,556 sq mi) | 13.7 |
 | Misiones | Posadas | Oberá | MN | 1,278,873 | 29,911 km2 (11,549 sq mi) | 42.8 |
 | Neuquén | Neuquén | Cutral Có | NQ | 710,814 | 94,422 km2 (36,457 sq mi) | 7.5 |
 | Río Negro | Viedma | San Carlos de Bariloche | RN | 750,768 | 202,169 km2 (78,058 sq mi) | 3.7 |
 | Salta | Salta | San Ramón de la Nueva Orán | SA | 1,441,351 | 155,341 km2 (59,977 sq mi) | 9.3 |
 | San Juan | San Juan | Caucete | SJ | 822,853 | 88,296 km2 (34,091 sq mi) | 9.3 |
 | San Luis | San Luis | Villa Mercedes | SL | 542,069 | 75,347 km2 (29,092 sq mi) | 7.2 |
 | Santa Cruz | Río Gallegos | Caleta Olivia | SC | 337,226 | 244,458 km2 (94,386 sq mi) | 1.4 |
 | Santa Fe | Santa Fe | Rosario | SF | 3,544,908 | 133,249 km2 (51,448 sq mi) | 26.6 |
 | Santiago del Estero | Santiago del Estero | La Banda | SE | 1,060,906 | 136,934 km2 (52,871 sq mi) | 7.7 |
 | Tierra del Fuego | Ushuaia | Río Grande | TF | 185,651* | 20,698 km2 (7,992 sq mi)* | 8.8* |
 | Tucumán | San Miguel de Tucumán | Monteros | TM | 1,731,820 | 22,592 km2 (8,723 sq mi) | 76.7 |
* Derived from multiple values
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Lists ofArgentine provinces | |
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