South Province, New Caledonia
South Province
Province Sud | |
|---|---|
Location of South Province in New Caledonia | |
| Country | France |
| Collectivity | New Caledonia |
| Seat | Nouméa |
| Government | |
| • President | Sonia Backès |
| Area | |
• Total | 7,012 km2 (2,707 sq mi) |
| Population (2019 census) | |
• Total | 203,144 |
| • Density | 29/km2 (75/sq mi) |
| Communities (2019) | |
| • European | 29.68% |
| • Kanak | 28.79% |
| • Multiracial | 12.53% |
| • Wallisian/Futunan | 10.82% |
| • Tahitian | 2.47% |
| • Indonesian | 1.65% |
| • Vietnamese | 1.07% |
| • Ni-Vanuatu | 1.07% |
| • Other Asian | 0.53% |
| • Other | 11.3% |
| Website | www |
The South Province (French: Province Sud) is one of three administrative divisions in New Caledonia. It corresponds to the southern and southwestern portion of the New Caledonian mainland.
It is by far the most economically developed and most urbanized part of the archipelago and indeed in the entire Melanesian region. The South Province is also the only part of New Caledonia - and Melanesia - where ethnic Melanesians do not constitute an absolute majority of the population.
The provincial assembly and executive are in Nouméa. The administrative services of the French state, however, are located in La Foa, with a Deputy Commissioner of the Republic (commissaire délégué de la République), akin to a subprefect of metropolitan France, in residence there. La Foa was chosen by the French central State in the late 1980s to counterbalance the overwhelming weight of Nouméa in New Caledonia
The central State administrative services in La Foa are not to be confused with the central State administrative services in Nouméa. The former manage local matters at the provincial level, whereas the latter, with the High Commissioner of the Republic in New Caledonia at their head, manage territorial matters for the whole of New Caledonia.