Under the
British Solomon Islands Protectorate, there were initially 12 administrative districts: Choiseul, Eastern Solomons, Gizo, Guadalcanal, Lord Howe, Malaita, Nggela and Savo, Rennell and Bellona Islands, Santa Cruz, Shortlands, Sikaiana (Stewart), and Ysabel and Cape Marsh. The administrative centre was in
Tulagi. After
World War II, the protectorate was reorganised into four districts, namely Central, Western, Eastern, and Malaita, which were then further subdivided into councils. The administrative centre was moved from Tulagi to
Honiara. At its independence in 1978, the protectorate became the sovereign state of
Solomon Islands. Honiara continued to function as the capital of the sovereign nation, and the inherited districts and councils remained until 1981, when the nation was reorganised into seven provinces by splitting some of the districts into provinces: the Central District was split into
Central,
Guadalcanal, and
Isabel provinces, while the Eastern District was split into
Makira-Ulawa and
Temotu provinces. The other two districts, Western and Malaita, were also designated as provinces. These new provinces corresponded to the councils of the districts before 1981. In 1983, the 22 square-kilometre
Honiara was split from Guadalcanal Province and became a separately-governed capital territory. The city remains as the capital of Guadalcanal Province. In 1995,
Choiseul Province was split from
Western Province, and
Rennell and Bellona Province was split from Central Province, resulting in the nine provinces and one town council of today. ==Population==