Huancavelica is one of the twenty-four departments that, together with the Constitutional Province of Callao, form the Republic of Peru. Its capital and most populated city is the homonymous Huancavelica. It is located in the center west of the country, bounded on the north by Junín, on the east and south by Ayacucho, on the west by Ica and on the northwest by Lima. With 22 131 km² it is the seventh least extensive department, ahead of Ica, Apurimac, Tacna, Moquegua, Lambayeque and Tumbes, the least extensive. It was founded on April 26,1822. Its rugged jurisdiction includes territory of both slopes of the Andes Mountains with some areas covered by the Amazon rainforest in its northern sector.
It is the department with the greatest economic poverty in Peru.