Sucre (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈsukɾe]) is a department in the Caribbean Region of Colombia. The department ranks 27th by area, 10,670 km (4,120 sq mi) and it has a population of 904,863, ranking 20th of all the 32 departments of Colombia. Sucre is bordered by the Caribbean on the northwest; by Bolívar Department on the east and by Córdoba Department on the west.

Sucre was named in honor of the Independence hero Antonio José de Sucre who was quoted by the founders of this department in reference to Simón Bolívar's death as saying "They have killed my heart", expression said while cruising the territory of the present day Sucre Department.

As of 2009, the Sucre Department has an estimated population of 802,733, of which 234,886 are in the department capital Sincelejo, according to the DANE projections.

Before the Spanish Conquest, the land comprising the department of Sucre was mainly inhabited by two groups of indigenous people — the Zenú and the Turbacos. The Zenú language was perhaps part of the Chibchan language family by the Arhuacos branch. The Turbaco people were part of the Cariban language family and they controlled the area adjacent to the Gulf of Morrosquillo. The Zenú people — by the Finzenú and Panzenú branches — controlled the rest of the territory, which used to be part of a bigger territory along the current department of Córdoba and parts of Bolívar and Antioquia sometimes known as Zenú kingdom or Zenú nation.

The area adjacent to the coast was inhabited by the Turbaco people and it was the border lands of the Carib's territories in the Cariibean Coast of Colombia. This specific part of the Carib's included the coasts of the present day departments of Magdalena, Atlántico and Bolívar.

The Zenú engineers were able to develop a complicated hydraulic infrastructure in the basin of the San Jorge river — they also worked in the basin of the Sinú river in lands of the Córdoba Department — involving flood control works as well as drainage and irrigation systems.

The first Spanish conquerors that sighted to the coastline of the present day Sucre Department were Alonso de Ojeda, Juan de la Cosa, Rodrigo de Bastidas and Francisco Cesar around 1499.

The conquerors thought the territory to be rich in precious metals since, but soon they would find out they were wrong about that. This situation led to the encomenderos to employ the indigenous workforce almost exclusively for cattle rising on the northern areas.

The territory had been under the tutelage of the government settled in Cartagena – except a brief period of time when it was under the jurisdiction of the central government in Bogotá – this control was effective by several denominations while the country evolved from its colonial institutions until its final republican form in 1886 and until the establishment of Sucre as a department independent from Bolivar.

Date	Territory
1535	Province of Cartagena (art of the Audience of Panama)
17th-18th centuries	Province of Cartagena (Part of the New Kingdom of Granada)
1810–1821	Department of Cundinamarca (Part of the Gran Colombia)
1821–1829	Department of Magdalena (Part of the Gran Colombia)
1830–1858	Province of Cartagena(Part of the Republic of New Granada)
1858–1863	Sovereign State of Bolívar (Part of the Granadine Confederation)
1863–1886	Sovereign State of Bolívar (Part of the United States of Colombia)
1886–1966	Departamento de Bolivar (Part of the Republic of Colombia)

In 1963, the Second Assembly of Municipalities created the Department of Sucre. People vouched for its creation after a campaign led by CorpoSucre. On July 28, 1966, the Senate of Colombia started a debate on the creation of the department and on August 18 of the same year approved its creation under the 47 Law of 1966 sanctioned by the then-president of Colombia, Carlos Lleras Restrepo.

Sucre is subdivided into 5 regions or provinces:

The Archipelago of San Bernardo is within the Sucre Department.

January through March are dry month of almost no rainfall.

According to the 2018 population census results, 12% of the population self identifies as indigenous people, gathering 5.5% of the national indigenous population; also, 11% of the population self identifies as black, creole, palenquero or afro-colombian. Venezuelans started to arrive to the department in 2016 and now represent almost 3% of the population, according to the official figures in 2022.

The rest of the population does not declare any ethnicity and are descendants mainly from Spanish, Indigenous and Black people; Arabs started to come in big numbers to Colombia after 1880 and they settled particularly in the Caribbean region of the country, including Sucre, they were mainly Lebanese, Palestinians and Syriacs arrived in smaller numbers, their descendants are estimated to be more than 3 million in the country, their contribution is noticeable in the culture, economy and politics in the Caribbean region.

As of 2022, the population is getting closer to more than 1 million inhabitants as the national and local population growth is propelled by the massive arrival of Venezuelan migrants. During the 80s and 90s the department had high fertility rates and low death rates, in recent years the growth has slowed down as the fertility rate fell below the replacement level and the demographic transition impacts the department.

Almost 32% of the entire population resided in the capital city Sincelejo and 62% of the department population lives in urban areas, specially around the capital city where Corozal, Sampues, Morroa and Los Palmitos are placed, gathering almost half a million people, according to the official population projections.

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±%
1973	411,000	—
1985	561,649	+36.7%
1990	701,105	+24.8%
2005	772,010	+10.1%
2018	904,863	+17.2%
2022	980,942	+8.4%
Source:

Year	Average population	Live births	Deaths	Natural change	Crude birth rate (per 1000)	Crude death rate (per 1000)	Natural change (per 1000)	Total fertility rate
1985	590,461	16,396	4,535	11,861	27.8	7.7	20.1	3.44
1986	600,249	16,498	4,421	12,077	27.5	7.4	20.1	3.36
1987	610,197	16,627	4,330	12,297	27.3	7.1	20.2	3.29
1988	620,245	16,745	4,261	12,484	27.0	6.9	20.1	3.23
1989	630,357	16,892	4,208	12,684	26.8	6.7	20.1	3.19
1990	640,539	17,053	4,172	12,881	26.6	6.5	20.1	3.15
1991	650,810	17,166	4,149	13,017	26.4	6.4	20.0	3.12
1992	661,132	17,168	4,136	13,032	26.0	6.3	19.7	3.06
1993	671,156	17,098	4,131	12,967	25.5	6.2	19.3	2.99
1994	681,130	17,025	4,110	12,915	25.0	6.0	19.0	2.93
1995	690,851	16,904	4,100	12,804	24.5	5.9	18.6	2.86
1996	700,342	16,886	4,101	12,785	24.1	5.9	18.2	2.82
1997	709,721	17,006	4,111	12,895	24.0	5.8	18.2	2.81
1998	719,121	17,244	4,131	13,111	24.0	5.7	18.3	2.83
1999	728,579	17,420	4,157	13,263	23.9	5.7	18.2	2.83
2000	738,069	17,605	4,189	13,416	23.9	5.7	18.2	2.84
2001	747,556	17,695	4,226	13,469	23.7	5.7	18.0	2.84
2002	756,956	17,660	4,265	13,395	23.3	5.6	17.7	2.81
2003	766,160	17,522	4,306	13,216	22.9	5.6	17.3	2.76
2004	775,124	17,378	4,349	13,029	22.4	5.6	16.8	2.72
2005	783,535	17,192	4,395	12,797	21.9	5.6	16.3	2.67
2006	792,200	17,030	4,485	12,545	21.5	5.7	15.8	2.63
2007	800,848	16,879	4,579	12,300	21.1	5.7	15.4	2.59
2008	809,414	16,731	4,676	12,055	20.7	5.8	14.9	2.56
2009	817,937	16,603	4,775	11,828	20.3	5.8	14.5	2.52
2010	826,411	16,493	4,878	11,615	20.0	5.9	14.1	2.49
2011	834,736	16,373	4,982	11,391	19.6	6.0	13.6	2.46
2012	842,950	16,248	5,090	11,158	19.3	6.0	13.3	2.43
2013	851,157	16,151	5,198	10,953	19.0	6.1	13.1	2.40
2014	859,324	16,027	5,306	10,721	18.7	6.2	12.5	2.37
2015	867,701	15,913	5,416	10,497	18.3	6.2	12.1	2.34
2016	877,397	15,834	5,533	10,301	18.1	6.3	11.8	2.30
2017	888,638	15,829	5,655	10,174	17.8	6.4	11.4	2.28
2018	904,863	15,882	5,806	10,076	17.6	6.4	11.2	2.24
2019	928,984	16,123	5,884	10,239	17.4	6.3	11.1	2.20
2020	950,612	16,052	6,147	9,905	16.9	6.5	10.4	2.14
2021	966,893	15,268	7,119	8,149	15.8	7.4	8.4	2.01
2022	980,942	15,258	6,675	8,583	15.6	6.8	8.8	1.97
2023	994,060	15,214	6,234	8,980	15.3	6.3	9.0	1.94

• (in Spanish) Government of Sucre official website