San Pedro de Macorís Province

San Pedro de Macorís is a province of the Dominican Republic. It is in the southeastern part of the country. Its capital city is San Pedro de Macorís.

Name
The province has the same name of the capital of the province. In English, San Pedro is "Saint Peter"; "Macorís" was the name of a group of native people that lived in the Hispaniola. That name Macorís, or Macorix, was given to the river where the city of San Pedro de Macorís was founded..

History
San Pedro de Macorís was created as a Maritime District (a special administrative category that has been abandoned) on 13 June 1882. The 1907 Dominican Constitution change its status to province. It was part of the old province of Santo Domingo and of the El Seibo province before being elevated to the category of province with the municipalities of Macorís (later, San Pedro de Macorís), Ramón Santana and San José de Los Llanos.

Consuelo was made a municipality in 1996, Quisqueya in 1998 and Guayacanes in 1992. In 2000, El Puerto became a municipal district and Gautier in 2002.

Location
The San Pedro de Macorís province is bordered to the north by the Hato Mayor and El Seibo provinces, to the east by the La Romana province and to the west by the Monte Plata and Santo Domingo provinces.The Caribbean Sea is to the south of the province.

Population
In  (last national census), there were  people living in the San Pedro de Macorís province, and 244,215 () living in towns and cities. The population density was  persons/km².

Its population represents  of the total population of the country and the province is ranked as the 7th (out of 31 plus the National District) more populated province.

, the total estimated propulation of the province is 299,933 inhabitants.

The largest city of the province is San Pedro de Macorís, its head municipality or capital, with an urban population (in ) of 185,255 inhabitants.

About 80% of the population is black, the rest of the 20% is mostly mulatto.

Geography
The San Pedro de Macorís province has a total area of . It has  of the area of the Dominican Republic and it is ranked as the 18th (out of 31 plus the National District) largest province.

The altitude of the provincial capital, San Pedro de Macorís, is  above sea level.

The San Pedro de Macorís province is in the "Llano Costero del Caribe" ("Caribbean Coastal Plain"), a large plain in southeastern Dominican Republic where there are many savannas with grasses. There are not high mountains in the province, only some low hills.

The rivers in this province are not very long but they have much water; their sources are in the mountains north of the province and flow south to the Caribbean Sea. The most important rivers are, from east to west:
 Cumayasa, which is the border with the La Romana Province
 Soco
 Higuamo. The city of San Pedro de Macorís is at its mouth. Its name was Macorís (or Macoríx) after joining the Casuí but that name is not used any more for the river.
 Casuí. It is a tributary of the Higuamo river.
 Brujuelas, which forms the border with the Monte Plata Province and is part of the border with the Santo Domingo Province. The last  of this river are underground.

Climate
The climate of the province is a tropical climate, hot most of the year.

Municipalities
There are 6 municipalities and 2 municipal districts (M.D.) in the province.

Economy
Because in the province there are many savannas with grasses, the main economic activity for centuries was cattle raising. It is still an important activity in the province.

In the last years of the 19th century, during the war of independence in Cuba, many Cuban and American companies came to the Dominican Republic to grow sugar cane and to produce sugar. San Pedro de Macorís is the Dominican province where there are more sugar cane factories and the port of San Pedro de Macorís became one of the most important port in the country.

In the city of San Pedro de Macorís, manufacturing is important, mainly cement, rum and in industries in the Zona Franca ("free zone" where the industries do not pay taxes and all the production is sent to other countries).

In the Guayacanes municipality, tourism is important and there are many hotels close to the beaches, mainly in the Juan Dolio beach.

References

Provinces of the Dominican Republic
1885 establishments
1880s establishments in the Dominican Republic