Thiès has two coastlines, one in the north with the Grande Côte housing the Niayes vegetable market, one to the south with the Petite Côte, one of the tourist areas of Senegal.
Principally the main passageway between the peninsula and the rest of the country, the region of Thiès has received a communication route connected to the first rail line and new road infrastructure.
Thiès is relatively small, yet it is the most populous region after Dakar, with a population of 2,467,523 inhabitants in 2023.[2]
The coastal communities are dependent on fishing, growing crops, and coastal tourism for subsistence. The interior of the region was the peanut basin. Phosphates are also mined there.
Geographically, the region partially overlaps with the precolonial Kingdoms of Cayor and Baol.[7] The Kingdom of Baol was ruled by the Joof family for several centuries until c 1549. During the colonial-era, its development was supported by the railway line - the Dakar-Saint-Louis railway in the late nineteenth century, and then with the Dakar-Niger railway. Thus Administratively, it is one of the oldest in the country.
Thiès region is divided into 3 departments (départements), 14 communes (soon 15 communes in 2023), 12 arrondissements, 32 communautés rurales and 3 communes d'arrondissement.
^ abBa, Abdou Bouri, "Essai sur l’histoire du Saloum et du Rip", Avant-propos par Charles Becker et Victor Martin. Publié dans le Bulletin de l’Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire (IFAN), pp 10-13
^(in French) Djibril Diop, "Décentralisation et gouvernance locale au Sénégal". Quelle pertinence pour le développement local ?, Paris, L'Harmattan, 2006, p. 69 ISBN2-296-00862-3
^(in French) Decree n°2002-166 of 21 February 2002 fixant le ressort territorial et le chef lieu des régions et des départements [1]
