Venezuela Map with States

Venezuelan law has counted 24 states since April 2024, while ISO 3166-2 and most English references count 23. The difference is Guayana Esequiba, which that law made a state on territory Guyana administers and Venezuela claims. The map follows the Venezuelan count of 24. Two more divisions, provided for in the 1999 Constitution, are not states: the Capital District, in Caracas, and the Federal Dependencies, the offshore islands outside any state. Venezuela uses states, or estados, rather than provinces or departments, and below them are 335 municipalities.

Caracas, the national capital, is the Capital District's seat, and Venezuela's 23 long-standing states have these capitals: Amazonas (Puerto Ayacucho), Anzoátegui (Barcelona), Apure (San Fernando de Apure), Aragua (Maracay), Barinas (Barinas), Bolívar (Ciudad Bolívar), Carabobo (Valencia), Cojedes (San Carlos), Delta Amacuro (Tucupita), Falcón (Coro), Guárico (San Juan de los Morros), La Guaira (La Guaira), Lara (Barquisimeto), Mérida (Mérida), Miranda (Los Teques), Monagas (Maturín), Nueva Esparta (La Asunción), Portuguesa (Guanare), Sucre (Cumaná), Táchira (San Cristóbal), Trujillo (Trujillo), Yaracuy (San Felipe) and Zulia (Maracaibo). La Guaira was called Vargas until 2019. The National Institute of Statistics (INE) lists no capital for the Federal Dependencies. For Guayana Esequiba, the 2024 law sets only a provisional seat for its authorities: Tumeremo, in Bolívar.

Guayana Esequiba is a state under Venezuelan law, and this map includes it as the 24th state. The Organic Law for the Defense of Guayana Esequiba, of 3 April 2024, created it on the land west of the Essequibo River, about two-thirds of the territory Guyana administers. The case over the 1899 arbitral award on the boundary is pending at the International Court of Justice. Venezuela claims the land, and Guyana administers it. ISO 3166-2 gives the state no code, and the National Institute of Statistics (INE) has no population or area for it. The map of Guyana draws the same land inside Guyana's ten regions, and the map of South America draws it as part of Guyana.

Venezuela's administrative regions date from a decree of 11 June 1969, which set eight. The present list has nine: Andean (Barinas, Mérida, Táchira, Trujillo), Capital (Capital District, Miranda, La Guaira), Central (Aragua, Carabobo, Cojedes), Central-Western (Falcón, Lara, Portuguesa, Yaracuy), Guayana (Amazonas, Bolívar, Delta Amacuro), Insular (Nueva Esparta and the Federal Dependencies), Llanos (Apure, Guárico), Northeastern (Anzoátegui, Monagas, Sucre) and Zulian (Zulia). The regions do not all follow this map's lines: Apure's Páez municipality belongs to the Andean region, and the rest of Apure to the Llanos. Guayana Esequiba, created in 2024, is not one of the nine. Some Spanish-language lists add it to the Guayana region. The natural regions, such as the Andes, follow relief rather than state lines.

The largest state in Venezuela is Bolívar, at about 240,000 km² in 2011 figures from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), more than a quarter of the 916,445 km² INE gives for the country. Amazonas, to its southwest, is second at about 180,000 km², and the two together cover 46% of Venezuela. Apure (76,500 km²), Guárico (64,986 km²) and Zulia (63,100 km², Lake Maracaibo included) are next in INE's figures. Guayana Esequiba, the 2024 state, has no official area, but on the map it is smaller than Bolívar and Amazonas, so the two largest do not change.

Nueva Esparta, Venezuela's smallest state, is made up of the Caribbean islands of Margarita, Coche and Cubagua, with its capital, La Asunción, on Margarita. It covers 1,150 km² in 2011 figures from the National Institute of Statistics (INE). La Guaira, at 1,497 km², is the smallest state on the mainland, on the coast north of Caracas. The Capital District and the Federal Dependencies are not states, and both are smaller than Nueva Esparta. The Capital District covers 433 km². The Federal Dependencies are smaller still: INE gives no total, but the island areas it lists come to under 400 km².

The Federal Dependencies of Venezuela are the offshore islands that belong to no state, under articles 16 and 17 of the 1999 Constitution. They have no municipalities, and the National Institute of Statistics (INE) names no capital. The 2011 census counted 2,155 people in three of INE's 15 island groups: Los Roques, Los Testigos and Chimanas. Since 2011, Los Roques, La Orchila and Las Aves have formed the Francisco de Miranda Insular Territory. The map draws La Tortuga, La Blanquilla, La Orchila, Los Roques and Las Aves as one unit. Isla de Aves, about 550 km north of the mainland, belongs to them but is not drawn: it is below the map's 1 km² minimum for islands.

Zulia leads Venezuela's states in population, with 3,704,404 people at the 2011 census of the National Institute of Statistics (INE), which counted 27,227,930 nationwide. Miranda (2,675,165), Carabobo (2,245,744) and Lara (1,774,867) come next among the states. The Capital District, which is not a state, had 1,943,901 people, fewer than the top three states and more than Lara. The 2011 count is still the latest by state: a 15th census was decreed in September 2019 but had not been held by November 2026. INE did not count Guayana Esequiba. Guyana's 2022 census counts the people there by Guyanese region, but those regions do not follow the Essequibo, so no total for the state can be taken from it.

A custom map of Venezuela starts from this map in the free Ultimaps editor, and you can begin without signing up. Color the states by hand or paste a table of values. Names match with or without accents or the word Estado, so Tachira matches Táchira. Vargas matches La Guaira, Caracas matches the Capital District, and Essequibo matches Guayana Esequiba. ISO codes such as VE-V work for the other 25 divisions. Pins can add unmarked capitals such as Los Teques. You need a free account to save, publish, share a link or embed the map. The free export is a standard PNG with a small Ultimaps credit, and Ultimaps Pro is needed for high-resolution PNG, SVG and PDF.