Districts of Uganda

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Updates: 

Tom Kirk reports the existence of websites for formerly unconfirmed districts. On investigation, it appears that the Uganda Communication Commission has set up URLs for each of the districts, using the pattern www.district name.go.ug. The UCC provides standardized content for districts that don't provide their own. There are sites for the three new districts listed in Wikipedia: Bududa , Bukedea , and Lyantonde .

District Creation and Decentralisation in Uganda , by Elliott Green, examines the reasons behind the rapid creation of new districts. Green says that the creation of Lamwo district out of Kitgum was announced in 2007-07. He also says that Maracha and Tororo districts were not created when they were announced. Lamwo and Maracha don't have UCC websites yet. Tororo's URL brings up a Joomla page.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-9 was published on 2007-11-28. It provides ISO codes for the 21 districts created since Newsletter I-5 was issued in 2003. The 56 existing codes were left unchanged. ISO lists alternate names for four districts: Amuru (Kilak), Isingiro (Kabingo), Maracha (Maracha-Terego), and Namutumba (Busiki).

Comparing the Wikipedia  article to the list below, there are the following discrepancies: Bukedea (pop. 122,527) is split from Kumi, Bududa (pop. 124,368) from Manafwa, and Lyantonde (pop. 66,175) from Rakai. The Ministry of Local Government website (no longer accessible online) said that Bududa and Bukedea are "not yet approved", but it may be outdated. Also, on the Wikipedia page, the names of Busiki, Kabingo, and Maracha are changed to Namutumba, Isingiro, and Maracha-Terego, respectively; but other sources seem to agree with the list below.

Lucas Snyder computed the populations of the newly created districts (2005-07-01 and 2006-07-01). In most cases, it was possible to calculate the populations by using the populations of the individual counties that were taken to make each new district. The exception is Budaka district, which included some sub-counties of Pallisa district. The total 2002 population for Budaka and Pallisa is known to be correct.

Paraskevas Renesis sent me a couple of URLs showing another expansion in the number of districts in Uganda. One of them, on the New Vision  website, contains some historical information that appears to come verbatim from the Change history section below. If the author used the Statoids site as his main source, his information is probably not more accurate than mine.

FIPS Publication Change Notice No. 9, affecting FIPS PUB 10-4, was issued on 2004-10-01. It assigns FIPS codes to the eleven new districts of 2000-2001. It also changes the FIPS codes of the old districts from which the new ones were formed. Details are below under Primary subdivisions and Change history.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter number I-5, dated 2003-09-05, adds eleven new districts to Uganda, and changes all ISO codes for districts. The Uganda Bureau of Statistics is cited as the source for the list of districts and the codes. All of the district names from the old list are still there, except that Kibale appears as Kibaale in the newsletter (and also on the UBoS site). Google finds a lot more hits for Kibale than Kibaale, so I stick with the old spelling.

Country overview: 

Uganda was a British protectorate at the beginning of the 20th century. On 1962-10-09 it became an independent member of the British Commonwealth.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Uganda
2. Dutch: Oeganda, Republiek Oeganda (formal)
3. English: Republic of Uganda (formal)
4. Finnish: Uganda
5. French: Ouganda m
6. German: Uganda n
7. Icelandic: Úganda
8. Italian: Uganda f
9. Norwegian: Uganda, Republikken Uganda (formal)
10. Portuguese: Uganda, República f do Uganda m (formal)
11. Spanish: Uganda, República f de Uganda (formal)
12. Swedish: Uganda

Origin of name: 

Swahili for land of the Ganda, ethnic name

Primary subdivisions: 

Uganda is divided into 77 districts.

Further subdivisions:

See the Counties of Uganda page.

The districts are divided into counties, which are subdivided into sub-counties, which are subdivided into parishes, which are subdivided into villages. The old regions are still referred to, but no longer have any administrative status.

Territorial extent: 

1. Bugiri includes the islands of Sigulu, Lolui, Dagusi, Sagitu, and others in Lake Victoria.
2. Kalangala consists of the Sese Islands in Lake Victoria. The largest ones are Bugala and Bukasa.
3. Mukono includes the islands of Buvuma, Kome, Damba, Bugaia, and others in Lake Victoria.

Change history: 

1. The sources for some entries below are Geographic Note GE-29 and Geographic Note GE-40, both published by the Office of the Geographer, U.S. State Department. Others are based on "Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Local Government System" (RCI), published by the Government of Uganda in 1987.
2. 1926: Significant border adjustments made between Uganda and its neighboring countries.
3. From 1945 or earlier until after independence, Uganda was divided into four provinces. During at least part of this period, the provinces were subdivided into districts. This table gives the populations of the provinces according to the censuses of 1948, 1959, and 1969.

1. 1959: Status of provinces changed to regions, with no administrative function. Districts became the primary divisions. (This is a conjecture to try to explain the observed facts. According to RCI, there were 16 districts at this time.)
2. 1962: Mbale territory, with an area of 25 km.², was created from territory disputed between Bugisu and Bukedi districts. The city of Mbale was the capital of both districts. (GE-29) The New Vision site gives 1966 as the date of this change. RCI agrees with 1962.
3. 1962-10-09: Uganda became an independent member of the British Commonwealth.
4. 1966-05-28: Status of Busoga changed from territory to district. (GE-29)
5. 1966-06-10: Buganda kingdom split into four districts: Bombo, Masaka, Mpigi, and Mubende. At this date, Uganda was divided into 15 districts, three kingdoms, and one territory, as listed in the following table. These were further subdivided into sazas (counties), which were subdivided into gombolas (sub-counties), which were subdivided into mirukas (parishes). (GE-29)

Atlas of Uganda (1967) has a table of districts with populations from the 1959 census. This list differs from the previous one in that Bombo, Mpigi, and Sebei disappear, to be replaced by Mengo. I'm not sure how to reconcile this with the information from the Geographic Notes. Based on the change reported in GE-40, Mengo represents the union of Bombo and Mpigi, but I don't know what happened to Sebei.

1. 1967-09-08: New constitution approved. Status of kingdoms changed to districts. Mbale territory merged with Bugisu district. Capital of Bukedi moved to Tororo. Name of Bombo district changed to East Mengo. Name of Mpigi district changed to West Mengo. (GE-40)
2. 1971-04: Acholi district split into East Acholi and West Acholi; Karamoja district split into North Karamoja and South Karamoja. "Geopolitical Data Elements and Related Features", published by the Defense Intelligence Agency on 1972-09-29, has this list of divisions of Uganda. As you can see, it reflects the partition of Acholi but not that of Karamoja.

1. 1974: Provinces were introduced as the new primary subdivisions of Uganda. Districts remained as secondary subdivisions, and were increased in number to 37 (RCI). These were the provinces during this period.

1. 1979: Provinces abolished, and the number of districts reduced to 33, each named for its capital.
2. ~1989: Name of Buganda region changed to Central.
3. 1990: Kalangala district split from Masaka.
4. 1991: Kibale district split from Hoima, while 314 km.² of territory was transferred from Masindi to Hoima; Kiboga split from Mubende; Kisoro split from Kabale; Pallisa split from Tororo. The resulting districts were these:

1. 1994: Ntungamo district formed by taking parts of Bushenyi and Mbarara.
2. 1997-03-20: Adjumani district split from Moyo (former FIPS code UG54); Bugiri split from Iganga (UG32); Busia split from Tororo (UG64); Katakwi split from Soroti (UG63); Nakasongola split from Luwero (UG48); Sembabule split from Masaka (UG49). Change Notice 7 to FIPS PUB 10-4, published 2002-01-10 assigns FIPS codes to the six new districts. ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-3, published 2002-08-20 assigns ISO codes to the six new districts. The following table shows the resulting situation. Thanks to Stefan Helders for providing data in this table, mostly taken from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics  Web page.

1. 2000-11-28: The Uganda Parliament passed a motion to create 11 new districts: Kamwenge, Kayunga, Kyenjojo, Mayuge, Pader, Sironko, Wakiso, and Yumbe, retroactive to 2000-07-01; and Kaberamaido, Kanungu, and Nakapiripirit, effective 2001-07-01. Kamwenge district split from Kabarole; Kayunga split from Mukono; Kyenjojo split from Kabarole; Mayuge split from Iganga; Pader split from Kitgum; Sironko split from Mbale; Wakiso split from Mpigi; Yumbe split from Arua.
2. 2001-07-01: Kaberamaido district split from Soroti; Kanungu split from Rukungiri; Nakapiripirit split from Moroto. The following table shows the districts at that date. The 1980 and 1991 populations in this table come from Provisional Summary tables in Appendix 1 of Uganda's 2002 census. They were revised to reflect the current set of districts, rather than the districts as they stood at the census dates.

1. 2005-07-01: Fourteen new districts created. According to the New Vision website, Amolatar district was created by taking Kyoga county from Lira; Amuria district created by taking Amuria and Kapelebyong counties from Katakwi; Budaka district created by taking Budaka county and Kakoro, Kabwangasi, Kirika and Kadama sub-counties from Pallisa; Bukwa district created by taking Kongasis county from Kapchorwa; Butaleja district created by taking Bunyole county from Tororo; Ibanda district created by taking Ibanda county from Mbarara; Kaabong district created by taking Dodoth county from Kotido; Kabingo district created by taking Isingiro and Bukanga counties from Mbarara; Kaliro district created by taking Bulamogi county from Kamuli; Kiruhura district created by taking Kazo and Nyabushozi counties from Mbarara; Koboko district created by taking Koboko county from Arua; Manafwa district created by taking Bubulo and Manjiya counties from Mbale; Mityana district created by taking Mityana and Busujju counties from Mubende; and Nakaseke district created by taking Nakaseke county from Luwero. There is, however, an unresolved discrepancy with a list of districts (as of 2006-02-15) found on a Uganda electoral commission site. The electoral commission's district list substitutes Isingiro district for Budaka and Kabingo. The (Uganda) Weekly Observer, in an article dated 2005-08-04, says that Budaka and Tororo were to be reconsidered because of boundary disputes. It lists Mityana among the districts to be formed in 2006; and it lists Amuria as being created in both 2005 and 2006. A press review  (PDF) from the Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry (2005-07-21) has more details.
2. 2006-07-01: Seven new districts created. According to New Vision, Abim district was created by taking Labwor county from Kotido (former HASC code UG.KZ); Bulisa district created by taking Bulisa county from Masindi; Busiki district created by taking Busiki county from Iganga; Dokolo district created by taking Dokolo county from Lira (UG.LR); Amuru district created by taking Kilak and Nwoya counties from Gulu; Maracha district created by taking Maracha and Terego counties from Arua (UG.AU); Oyam district created by taking Oyam county from Apac. The original plan included a new district to be created by taking Tororo county from Tororo, but this was deferred. Amuru district was probably called Kilak for a while.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Amuru: Kilak (variant)
2. Bukwa: Bukwo (variant)
3. Bulisa: Buliisa (variant)
4. Busiki: Namutumba (variant)
5. East Mengo: East Buganda (variant)
6. Kabingo: Isingiro (variant)
7. Kibale: Kibaale (variant)
8. Luwero: Luweero (variant)
9. Manafwa: Bubuulo, Manafa (variant)
10. Maracha: Maracha-Terego (variant)
11. Sembabule: Ssembabule (variant)
12. West Mengo: West Buganda (variant)