Parishes of Jamaica

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Administratively, Jamaica is divided into fourteen parishes. They are grouped to three historic counties, which have no administrative relevance (traditional capitals in parentheses):

Jamaica
This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Jamaica

Queen Elizabeth II Governor-General Kenneth Hall Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller Opposition Bruce Golding Parliament Senate House of Representatives Political parties Elections: 2007 Parishes and Counties Foreign relations Jamaican diplomatic missions
Other countries · Politics Portal view • talk • edit

	Parish	Area km²	Population Census 2001	Capital
Cornwall County
1	Hanover	450.4	67,037	Lucea
2	Saint Elizabeth	1,212.4	146,404	Black River
3	Saint James	594.9	175,127	Montego Bay
4	Trelawny Parish	874.6	73,066	Falmouth
5	Westmoreland	807.0	138,947	Savanna-la-Mar
Middlesex County
6	Clarendon	1,196.3	237,024	May Pen
7	Manchester	830.1	185,801	Mandeville
8	Saint Ann	1,212.6	166,762	Saint Ann's Bay
9	Saint Catherine	1,192.4	482,308	Spanish Town
10	Saint Mary	610.5	111,466	Port Maria
Surrey County
11	Kingston Parish⁽¹⁾ ⁽²⁾	21.8	96,052	Kingston
12	Portland	814.0	80,205	Port Antonio
13	Saint Andrew⁽¹⁾	430.7	555,828	Half Way Tree
14	Saint Thomas	742.8	91,604	Morant Bay
	Jamaica	10,990.5	2,607,631	Kingston

⁽¹⁾ Kingston Parish and Saint Andrew Parish together form Kingston and St Andrew Corporation.
⁽²⁾ Kingston Parish does not encompass all of Kingston.

[edit] Former Parishes

Parishes have been a feature of local administration in Jamaica ever since the island was captured by the English in 1655. Throughout its history, Jamaica has had a number of parishes, some of which no longer exist (having either been absorbed or divided between neighbouring parishes). At its most in 1865, Jamaica once had 22 parishes (the current 14 plus the ones listed below). The current order of parishes was established in 1867 through the elimination of 8 parishes. These former parishes were (roughly according to counties):

Surrey:

Port Royal (now divided between Kingston and Saint Andrew)
Saint George (now divided between Saint Mary and Portland)
Saint David (now part of Saint Thomas)

Middlesex:

Metcalfe (now part of Saint Mary)
Saint Dorothy (now part of Saint Catherine)
Saint John (now part of Saint Catherine)
Saint Thomas in the Vale (now part of Saint Catherine) - note that the current Saint Thomas used to be named “Saint Thomas in the East” to differentiate between the two parishes at the time.
Vere (now part of Clarendon)