This was a major setback for French Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy, who had hoped to use Corsica as the first step in his decentralization policies.

On 1 January 2018, Haute-Corse's administrative powers were partly ceded to the new territorial collectivity of Corsica.

As of 2019, there are 7 communes with more than 5,000 inhabitants:[4] The people living in the department are called Supranacci.

Most people of the department lives on coastal areas throughout highway.

The current prefect of Haute-Corse is François Ravier, who took office on 3 June 2019.