Guatemala Departments

Guatemala is about the size of Ohio and holds most of Central America's volcanoes, a Pacific coastal plain, a dry eastern corridor and, across the whole north, the forest of Petén. The department is the unit that settles a round there, because it tells you which of those you are in before it tells you anything else.

The quiz: Name to place, on the map
Grouped by: Administrative region: the eight Guatemala plans by
In the game: 22 departments

Start

What you are looking at

The departments (departamentos) of Guatemala, the first tier of the country. Most are named for their capital city, and the capital of the country, Guatemala City, sits in the department of the same name, which is why the two answers can be confused.

The map is lopsided. Petén covers the whole northern third and holds only a small share of the people, while the highlands of the south west pack six departments into the space of one: Sololá, Totonicapán, Quetzaltenango, Suchitepéquez, Retalhuleu and San Marcos. Izabal is the department with the Caribbean coast, and the only one that has it.

The groups are the eight administrative regions that Guatemala uses for planning and statistics. Region I is the Metropolitan one, Guatemala department on its own, and Petén is another region of a single department. The departments are the Guatemala Municipalities grouped, so the borders of the two maps match exactly. Lake Amatitlán and Lake Atitlán are water on both, not part of any department.

How to place one

Start with Petén. It is the big one in the north, on the borders with Mexico and Belize, and nothing else on the map is like it.
Find the capital. Guatemala is the small department in the middle of the country, with Sacatepéquez and Chimaltenango to its west and Escuintla between it and the Pacific.
Read the south west as a block. The six departments of the western highlands run from San Marcos on the Mexican border to Sololá at Lake Atitlán.
Follow the east as a line. Izabal, Zacapa, Chiquimula and El Progreso follow the Motagua valley from the Caribbean towards the capital.

Every department, by region

Southwest6 departments: Quetzaltenango, Retalhuleu, San Marcos, Sololá, Suchitepéquez, Totonicapán
Northwest2 departments: Huehuetenango, Quiché
Petén1 department: Petén
North2 departments: Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz
Central3 departments: Chimaltenango, Escuintla, Sacatepéquez
Northeast4 departments: Chiquimula, El Progreso, Izabal, Zacapa
Metropolitan1 department: Guatemala
Southeast3 departments: Jalapa, Jutiapa, Santa Rosa

Worked examples

Petén

The biggest of them

Petén is the largest department by a wide margin, a third of the country in one piece. It is forest and Maya ruins, Tikal among them, with Flores on its lake as the capital.

Sacatepéquez

The small one by the capital

Sacatepéquez is one of the smallest departments, tucked in the valley west of Guatemala City around Antigua Guatemala, which was the colonial capital until an earthquake moved it.

Frequently asked questions

How many departments does Guatemala have?

22.

Which department is Guatemala City in?

Guatemala, the department of the same name, in the middle of the country.

What is below the department?

The municipalities, which number 340. They are their own quiz.

The tier below this one is Guatemala Municipalities. For another country at this level, see Bolivia Departments.

Sources

geoBoundaries, Guatemala ADM1 and ADM2, the boundaries; the departments are the municipalities dissolved, so the two maps share every border
Departments of Guatemala, the 22 departments and the eight regions

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