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2005

Changes affecting status:

1. Afghanistan: listed two new provinces.
2. Antigua and Barbuda: added Redonda as a dependency.
3. Cape Verde: five new counties created. Added areas.
4. Cayman Islands: districts completely revised.
5. Chad: reorganized into 18 regions.
6. Congo-Kinshasa: new constitution will result in a reorganization. Added to change history.
7. Denmark: change of status of Bornholm. More information on future regions.
8. Djibouti: changed status of divisions and added a new region.
9. Haiti: added Nippes department.
10. Indonesia: changed one capital city.
11. Iran: two new provinces created.
12. Iraq: possible change of capital of Salah ad-Din province.
13. Italy: four new provinces added.
14. Kyrgyzstan: capital of Chüy moved to Tokmok.
15. Macedonia: new set of divisions adopted.
16. Moldova: new set of divisions adopted.
17. Myanmar: has a new capital; changed some names.
18. Norway: Østfold has a second capital.
19. Peru: departments replaced by regions.
20. Administration of Îles Éparses transferred from Reunion to French Southern Territories. HASC code changed accordingly.
21. Russian Federation: Perm' and Komi-Permyak have merged.
22. South Africa: renaming of Pretoria to Tshwane seems to be official.
23. Syria: changed preferred spelling of some provinces.
24. Turkey: province name change; possible future provinces.
25. Venezuela: name of capital district changed.
26. Yemen: there is a report of a new governorate.
27. Zimbabwe: changes of provincial capitals.

Other data added:

On 2003-07-11, the NUTS codes were revised. The primary focus of the revision was to ensure that all level-2 codes have two characters after the country code, and likewise for the other levels. On 2004-09-15, the Commission of the European Communities issued a proposal (PDF file) for extending NUTS codes to the new members of the EU. I also found NUTS-compatible codes for the Estonian municipalities.

Added some new foreign names in several countries, notably Austria, Belgium, and Switzerland.

The ISO 3166 maintenance agency published an update to the ISO 3166-2 standard. Countries affected are Afghanistan, Djibouti, Indonesia, Russia, Slovenia, and Vietnam.

Started to add Turkish names for some countries and statoids.

In the Territorial extent sections, identified more enclaves and four-statoid meeting points.

ITU code for Serbia and Montenegro has changed.

1. Afghanistan: added to change history. Changed spelling of one province, name of one capital.
2. Algeria: added to change history.
3. American Samoa: chose more official names for two districts.
4. Angola: added to Change history. Minor changes, including spelling of capitals.
5. Antigua and Barbuda: added population history; improved population data.
6. Argentina: more information about municipalities, name of capital district.
7. Armenia: added to change history.
8. Aruba: possible division into regions.
9. Bangladesh: Updated populations to 2001 census.
10. Belarus: added to change history. Updated populations. Added codes. Found more precise areas.
11. Belgium: Modified postal codes.
12. Bulgaria: added 2001 census data, areas, NUTS codes, etc.
13. Burkina Faso: added areas.
14. Cambodia: minor additions to change history, etc.
15. Canada: added to change history.
16. Cayman Islands: HASC codes had been omitted.
17. Central African Republic: added 1972 geographic codes to change history. Added 2003 census data.
18. Comoros: added 2003 census data.
19. Cook Islands: added 2001 census data and population history.
20. Croatia: added 2001 census data and areas. Added to change history.
21. Cyprus: news about Akrotiri and Dhekelia (see also Country Codes).
22. Denmark: reorganization coming in 2007.
23. Dominican Republic: showed new postal codes. Changed a HASC code.
24. Ecuador: added NUTE codes.
25. Eritrea: Better area figures, other fixes.
26. France: minor additions to change history.
27. Germany: added to change history.
28. Guam: added 2000 census.
29. Haiti: added 2003 census.
30. Honduras: added to change history.
31. Hungary: added 2001 census, population history.
32. Iceland: added a list of postal codes.
33. Ireland: Fixed Gaelic names, discussed other subdivisions.
34. Jordan: added to change history.
35. Kenya: added to change history.
36. Korea, North: More comments about special zones.
37. Latvia: added notes about planning regions.
38. Lesotho: added 1996 and 2001 populations.
39. Liberia: added to change history.
40. Liechtenstein: added 2000 census data, population history.
41. Lithuania: minor addition to change history.
42. Macedonia: added to Change history.
43. Moldova: added populations and change history.
44. Monaco: added 2000 census.
45. Mongolia: possible move of capital.
46. Morocco: added 1994 and 2004 census.
47. Nepal: added 1981 census data.
48. New Caledonia: added 2004 census data.
49. New Zealand: added 2001 census.
50. Northern Mariana Islands: added 2000 census.
51. Palestine: added country overview.
52. Peru: added NUTE codes.
53. Reunion: added 1999 census data, and Population history section.
54. Romania: added 2002 census data, population history.
55. Russia: added preliminary 2002 census data. Krasnoyarsk voted to unite. Added details to change history; added postal codes.
56. Rwanda: added 2002 census data, areas, and more.
57. Saudi Arabia: updated populations to 2000.
58. Sierra Leone: updated populations to 2004 provisional census results; added population history.
59. Somalia: changed spelling of capital names.
60. South Africa: name of executive capital is changing.
61. Spain: fixed Portuguese names of divisions. Updated one ISO code. Updated populations to 2001 census.
62. Sweden: added to change history.
63. Switzerland: added to population history.
64. Syria: updated populations to 2002 estimates.
65. Tajikistan: adjusted dates in change history.
66. Trinidad and Tobago: added 2000 census data.
67. Tunisia: updated populations to 2004 census; added population history.
68. Turkey: updated areas of provinces. Added to change history. Modified population history. Added 1990 and 2000 census populations.
69. Tuvalu: added 2002 census data.
70. U.S. Minor Outlying Islands: HASC codes had been omitted.
71. Ukraine: added postal codes.
72. United Kingdom: fixed FIPS code error.
73. Uruguay: updated populations for 2004 census.
74. Venezuela: updated populations to final 2001 census figures; added NUTE codes; added to change history.
75. Vietnam: modifications to regional grouping.

I updated the Statoid Factoids with the improved areas for Canadian provinces and territories, which I changed on the Canada page last December.

Secondary divisions:

1. Afghanistan: changed HASC codes to accommodate two new provinces.
2. Albania: added municipalities.
3. Angola: Luanda city council split into five parts.
4. Bangladesh: Updated populations to 2001 census, improved population history.
5. Belarus: added districts.
6. Bhutan: added subdistricts.
7. Burkina Faso: added departments.
8. Burundi: fixed duplicate HASC codes.
9. Cambodia: added districts.
10. Cape Verde: added name origins, scattered info.
11. Central African Republic: added 1972 geographic codes to change history.
12. Chad: reorganized into 48 departments.
13. Congo-Kinshasa: added change history.
14. Ecuador: added NUTE codes.
15. Eritrea: added districts.
16. Finland: updated municipalities, added their populations and areas.
17. France: minor correction to change history.
18. Germany: four more districts merged.
19. Haiti: added variant names and note about capitals. Relocated arrondissements for the new Nippes department.
20. Honduras: added to change history.
21. Iran: adjustments for two new provinces.
22. Italy: communes updated to 2005.
23. Kenya: updated list of districts. Added change history.
24. Kyrgyzstan: Fixed some HASC codes.
25. Madagascar: added to change history.
26. Morocco: added 2004 census and modified the list.
27. Myanmar: added districts.
28. Nepal: added 1991 census data.
29. New Caledonia: added 2004 census data. Added population history.
30. Peru: added NUTE codes. Adjusted for new regions.
31. Reunion: improved 1999 census data, added areas.
32. Russia: minor corrections.
33. Rwanda: added 2002 census data and areas.
34. Sierra Leone: updated populations to 2004 provisional census results; added population history; added a district.
35. Spain: changed some province names. Added municipalities.
36. Switzerland: Recent changes to districts.
37. Turkey: added districts.
38. Ukraine: added postal codes.
39. United States: cleared out and replaced some dead links to county maps.
40. Venezuela: added populations, areas, and NUTE codes.
41. Zambia: fixed duplicate HASC codes.
42. Zimbabwe: added obsolete names.

Site design changes:

Finished the project of incorporating all information from the book "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries."

Inserted a meta tag into every page, specifying that the character set for the Statoids pages is ISO-8859-1.

Added postal code information to numerous pages. Most of this information comes from the Universal Postal Union's document on Postal Addresses.

Ensured that the sections of each article (e.g. Primary subdivisions, Change history) are in a consistent sequence.

Added Country cross-reference page.

Revamped the "Other names of country" sections. For some languages I now provide the gender and number of nouns (italics), information which is hard to find on the Internet and is needed for translating text into those languages. Thanks to Karem Abdalla and Jose Gavinha for reviewing the genders of the German and Portuguese names, respectively.

Added a page of explanation for each of the article headings, and links from the headings to their explanations.

Added links from primary subdivision pages to secondary subdivision pages for the same country.

Time zones:

1. Australia: DST will be extended one week in 2006. Noted a small and obscure time zone (Central Western).
2. Brazil: added DST dates for 2005.
3. Canada: Two provinces will match U.S. changes.
4. Chile: I added a tilde to indicate that Chile observes DST.
5. Georgia: now permanently on UTC+4.
6. Greenland: Thule observes DST.
7. Haiti: adopted DST this year.
8. Honduras: Honduras is on UTC-6.
9. Kazakhstan: abolished daylight saving time. Changed UTC+4 to UTC+5. Also updated the main Kazakhstan page and the Kazakhstan time zones page.
10. Kyrgyzstan: Will stay on UTC+6 year round.
11. Mongolia: rumors of changes.
12. Nicaragua: adopted DST this year.
13. Tunisia: adopted DST this year.
14. United States: all of Indiana will use DST next year. Longer DST period.