Administrative divisions of Maldives
The Maldives is divided into 21 first-level administrative divisions:
Largest cities in Maldives
| # | City | Population |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | MaléCapital | 112,927 |
Malé is the largest urban area in the Maldives with about 112,927 people.
Terrain, rivers & lakes
Highest terrain in the Maldives: ≈ 20 m — read from the global elevation model, so summit heights are approximate. The physical map paints elevation bands from green lowlands to brown highlands.
No major named rivers or lakes are mapped for the Maldives at this map scale.
Ethnic groups in Maldives
homogeneous mixture of Sinhalese, Dravidian, Arab, Australasian, and African resulting from historical changes in regional hegemony over marine trade routes
Regionally, Maldivian is the most common ethnic group across most of the 21 divisions.
Source: CIA World Factbook · regional dominance compiled by Glostats from censuses and surveys
Religions in Maldives
Sunni Muslim (official)
Regionally, Sunni Muslim is the most common religious group across most of the 21 divisions.
Source: CIA World Factbook · regional dominance compiled by Glostats from censuses and surveys
Languages in Maldives
Dhivehi (official, closely related to Sinhala, script derived from Arabic), English (spoken by most government officials)
Regionally, Dhivehi is the most common language group across most of the 21 divisions.
Source: CIA World Factbook · regional dominance compiled by Glostats from censuses and surveys
Explore more
Sources: boundaries, cities, rivers and lakes from Natural Earth (public domain, 1:10m); elevation from the AWS Open Data terrain tiles (SRTM/GMTED); ethnic, religious and language shares from the CIA World Factbook; regional dominance compiled by Glostats from national censuses and surveys. Page generated 2026-10-19. More about our data.