Municipalities and parishes of Macau

By the end of Portuguese rule, Macau was administratively divided into two municipalities (Portuguese: concelhos) and seven civil parishes (Portuguese: freguesias). Parishes were administrative subdivisions of the municipalities. After the 1999 handover to China, parishes are still officially recognized divisions but for symbolic reasons only.

Background

Parishes were formerly administrative divisions falling under the former two municipalities of Macau: Macau and Ilhas. Following the 1999 transfer of sovereignty over Macau from Portugal to China, these municipalities were formally abolished on 31 December 2001 by Law No. 17/2001. While their administrative functions have since been removed, these parishes are still retained nominally.

Since the abolition of the municipalities, some of the municipal services are now handled by the Municipal Affairs Bureau.

Municipalities

Each municipality was run by a municipal chamber (Portuguese: câmara municipal), with a supervising municipal assembly (Portuguese: assembleia municipal).

	Municipality of Macau Concelho de Macau 澳門市 (pinyin: Àomén Shì; Cantonese Yale: Oumùhn Síh)	Coterminous with the Macau Peninsula. Its seat was also known as Cidade do (Santo) Nome de Deus de Macau (= City of the (Holy) Name of God of Macau, full motto: Cidade do (Santo) Nome de Deus de Macau, Não Há Outra Mais Leal, lit. City of the (Holy) Name of God of Macau, None Is More Loyal)
	Municipality of Ilhas Concelho das Ilhas 海島市 (pinyin: Hǎidǎo Shì; Cantonese Yale: Hóidóu Síh;)	Coterminous with the islands of Taipa and Coloane.

Parishes

Civil parishes of Macau

Prior to the dissolution of the municipalities in 2001, the first five parishes listed in the table below fell under the municipality of Macau while the remaining two fell under the municipality of Ilhas.

Parish	Chinese	Area (km²)[1]	Population (2016)[2]	Density (/km²)
Nossa Senhora de Fátima	花地瑪堂區	3.2	244,000	74,218
Santo António	聖安多尼堂區	1.1	136,000	118,000
São Lázaro	望德堂區	0.6	33,100	55,166
Sé	大堂區	3.4	49,200	15,352
São Lourenço	風順堂區	1.0	53,700	51,700
Nossa Senhora do Carmo	嘉模堂區 (氹仔)	7.6	101,200	12,131
São Francisco Xavier	路環堂區	7.6	26,700	1,221

• Cotai (路氹填海區) is a piece of recently reclaimed land joining the islands of Taipa and Coloane, it does not fall under any of the historical parishes.
• Not included in Macau SAR total area.
• Macau New Urban Zone under land reclamation.[3]

The parishes of Nossa Senhora do Carmo and São Francisco Xavier are coterminous with the natural borders of the islands of Taipa and Coloane, respectively.

See also

• Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau
• Geography of Macau

References

1. "Estatístico: Área de solos das freguesias" (in Portuguese). Direcção dos Serviços de Cartografia e Cadastro de Macau. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
2. "Estatísticas: Demográficas e Estimativas da População" (in Portuguese). Direcção dos Serviços de Estatística e Censos de Macau. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
3. "Parishes of Macau". Retrieved 8 April 2016.