Administrative divisions of the Principality of Serbia

In 1815, Serbia included all of the Belgrade Pashalik (12 nahije (sing. nahija, from Ottoman nahiye) and also the Poreč region of the Vidin Pashalik, with Poreč being returned to Ottoman administration in early 1816.^[1]

In 1819, Serbia was organized into 12 nahije (sing. nahija, from Ottoman nahiye), 45 knežine (sing. knežina), 1,396 villages and towns.

In 1833, six nahiye were ceded to Serbia with the "Third Hatišerif", an edict (hatt-i sharif) issued by Sultan Mahmud II (r. 1808–1839). In 1834, the Parliament decided that Serbia be divided on five governorships (serdarstvo) and 19 districts (okružije or okrug), thereby ending the Ottoman nomenclature. The six ceded nahiyas (part of Revolutionary Serbia before 1813), Krajina, Crna Reka, Paraćin, Kruševac, Stari Vlah, Jadar and Rađevina, were organized into the present governorships. The five governorships were Raška (Raško serdarstvo, seat in Čačak), Rasina (Rasinsko serdarstvo, seat in Jagodina), Podunavlje (Podunavsko serdarstvo, seat in Belgrade), Mačva (Mačvansko serdarstvo, seat in Šabac), and Timok (Timočko serdarstvo, seat in Negotin). In the summer of 1834 there were 15 districts and 61 captaincies (kapetanije), the latter renamed srezovi (sing. srez) in 1835.

According to the 1834 census, there were the following districts:

In 1836, the Čačak district was separated from the Rudnik district, while the Banja district was divided into the Aleksinac and Gurgusovac districts. The 17 districts were used until 1878. Gurgusovac was renamed Knjaževac in 1859.

In 1866, there were statistical studies done on the Principality of Serbia, one by statistician Vladimir Jakšić (1824–1899) in Glasnik, and the other done in Almanach de Gotha.^[2] Serbia had a total of 1,216,346 inhabitants in 1866, according to M. Milićević (1876).^[3]