La Paz Department (Bolivia)


The La Paz Department of Bolivia comprises with a 2024 census population of 3,022,566 inhabitants. It is situated at the western border of Bolivia, sharing Lake Titicaca with the neighboring Peru. It contains the Cordillera Real mountain range, which reaches altitudes of. Northeast of the Cordillera Real are the Yungas, the steep eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains that make the transition to the Amazon River basin to the northeast. The capital of the department is the city of La Paz and is the administrative city and seat of government/national capital of Bolivia.
WWW gobernacionlapaz.gob.bo

Provinces

The Department of La Paz is divided into 20 provinces which are further subdivided into 85 municipalities and — on the fourth level — into cantons.
The provinces with their capitals are:
ProvinceArea km2Population Capital
Abel Iturralde42,81518,073Ixiamas
Aroma4,51097,364Sica Sica
Bautista Saavedra2,52516,308Charazani
Caranavi3,40059,365Caranavi
Eliodoro Camacho2,08053,747Puerto Acosta
Franz Tamayo15,90026,997Apolo
Gualberto Villarroel1,93517,782San Pedro de Curahuara de Carangas
Ingavi5,410134,535Viacha
Inquisivi6,43066,346Inquisivi
José Manuel Pando1,9767,381Santiago de Machaca
José Ramón Loayza3,37047,295Luribay
Larecaja8,11086,481Sorata
Los Andes1,65877,579Pucarani
Manco Kapac36727,154Copacabana
Muñecas4,96529,694Chuma
Nor Yungas1,72036,983Coroico
Omasuyos2,06584,484Achacachi
Pacajes10,58455,180Coro Coro
Pedro Domingo Murillo4,7051,663,099La Paz
Sud Yungas5,770105,013Chulumani
Total:133,985 km22,706,359
Note: More than 3,770 km2 of Lake Titicaca---

Government

The chief executive office of Bolivia's departments is the Governor; before then, the office was called the Prefect, and until 2006 the prefect was appointed by the President of Bolivia and then the governor is elected by the voters. The current governor, Santos Quispe, was elected on 11 April 2021 and took office on 3 May.
Under the 2009 Constitution, Bolivian departments have an elected legislature, known as the Departmental Legislative Assembly. The La Paz Assembly has 45 members including five indigenous / natives minority representatives.
The most recent governor election results are as follows:

Languages

The languages spoken in the department are mainly Spanish, Aymara, Quechua and Guaraní. The following table shows the number of people belonging to the recognized group of speakers.
LanguageDepartmentBolivia
Quechua158,2602,281,198
Aymara1,181,5931,525,321
Guaraní1,52662,575
Another native4,44649,432
Spanish1,973,7086,821,626
Foreign70,448250,754
Only native257,242960,491
Native and Spanish1,027,9992,739,407
Spanish and foreign946,6504,115,751

Places of interest

Towns and villages