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Updates: 

Update 7 to Geopolitical Entities and Codes, the successor to FIPS standard 10-4, was issued with the date 2012-02-01. It changes the spelling of Cuanza to Kwanza in Cuanza Norte and Cuanza Sul. Update 8, dated 2012-05-01, changes the spelling of Cuando Cubango to Kuando Kubango. It's curious that the board didn't choose Kwando Kubango, which would be more consistent. (The ISO 3166-2 list still spells all of them with C's.)

I show Kwanza as an obsolete spelling of Cuanza, but it still seems to occur quite commonly. Probably that spelling (or misspelling) is reinforced by the Angolan currency unit, the kwanza.

Source [7], dated 2005, has populations and areas of the provinces. The populations are very approximate, most of them rounded to a multiple of 10,000. What's more, they total 8,939,000, which is less than the 1992 estimate and much less than the 2010-07 estimated country population of 13,068,161 given in the CIA World Factbook. Instead of using them, I've updated the population data from the 1992 estimates given before to 1995 estimates in the 2008 Statesman's Yearbook.

Most maps place Bula Atumba and Pango Aluquém districts in Cuanza Norte province. Most current news reports, and many reference pages, place them both in Bengo province. I will assume that they were recently transferred from Cuanza Norte to Bengo, and the maps haven't caught up yet (observed on 2005-10-30).

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-2 was published on 2002-05-21. It changes the spelling of one of the provinces of Angola from Zaïre to Zaire.

Country overview: 

Short name	ANGOLA
ISO code	AO
FIPS code	AO
Language	Portuguese (pt)
Time zone	+1
Capital	Luanda

 

In 1900, the area now known as Angola was Portuguese West Africa. By 1906, its boundaries were almost exactly the same as Angola's are today. Angola was an overseas province of Portugal until its independence on 1975-11-11.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Angola
2. Dutch: Angola, Republiek Angola (formal)
3. English: People's Republic of Angola (formal)
4. Finnish: Angola
5. French: Angola m
6. German: Angola n
7. Icelandic: Angóla
8. Italian: Angola
9. Norwegian: Angola, Republikken Angola (formal)
10. Portuguese: Angola, República f Popular de Angola n (formal)
11. Russian: Республика Ангола (formal)
12. Spanish: Angola, República f Popular de Angola f (formal)
13. Swedish: Angola
14. Turkish: Angola Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

From N'gola, 16th century king

Primary subdivisions: 

Angola is divided into 18 províncias (provinces).

Province	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Pop-1995	Pop-1970	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital	Colonial name of capital	Tel
Bengo	AO.BO	BGO	AO19	184,000		31,371	12,112	Caxito		034
Benguela	AO.BG	BGU	AO01	702,000	474,897	31,788	12,273	Benguela		072
Bié	AO.BI	BIE	AO02	1,246,000	650,337	70,314	27,148	Kuito	Silva Pôrto	048
Cabinda	AO.CB	CAB	AO03	185,000	81,265	7,270	2,807	Cabinda		031
Cuando Cubango	AO.CC	CCU	AO04	137,000	113,562	199,049	76,853	Menongue	Serpa Pinto	049
Cuanza Norte	AO.CN	CNO	AO05	412,000	304,565	24,190	9,340	N'dalatando	Salazar	035
Cuanza Sul	AO.CS	CUS	AO06	688,000	462,968	55,660	21,490	Sumbe	Novo Redondo	036
Cunene	AO.CU	CNN	AO07	245,000		89,342	34,495	Ondjiva	Pereira d'Eça	065
Huambo	AO.HM	HUA	AO08	1,687,000	837,627	34,274	13,233	Huambo	Nova Lisboa	041
Huíla	AO.HL	HUI	AO09	948,000	644,864	75,002	28,958	Lubango	Sá da Bandeira	061
Luanda	AO.LU	LUA	AO20	2,002,000	569,113	2,418	934	Luanda	São Paulo de Loanda	02
Lunda Norte	AO.LN	LNO	AO17	311,000	302,538	102,783	39,685	Lucapa		052
Lunda Sul	AO.LS	LSU	AO18	160,000		45,649	17,625	Saurimo	Henrique de Carvalho	053
Malanje	AO.ML	MAL	AO12	975,000	558,630	97,602	37,684	Malanje		051
Moxico	AO.MX	MOX	AO14	349,000	189,885	223,023	86,110	Luena	Luso	054
Namibe	AO.NA	NAM	AO13	135,000	52,179	58,137	22,447	Namibe	Moçâmedes	064
Uíge	AO.UI	UIG	AO15	948,000	386,709	58,698	22,663	Uíge	Carmona	033
Zaire	AO.ZA	ZAI	AO16	247,000	40,365	40,130	15,494	M'Banza Congo	São Salvador do Congo	032
18 provinces				10,427,600	5,669,504	1,246,700	481,354
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Province codes from ISO 3166-2. For full identification in a global context, prefix "AO-" to the code (ex: AO-MOX represents Moxico). FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4 Pop-1995: 1995 estimates Pop-1970: 1970-12-15 census Tel: Dialing prefix (mobile phones in Luanda are 09)

Further subdivisions:

See the City Councils of Angola page.

The provinces are divided into 159 city councils.

Territorial extent: 

Cabinda is an exclave, separated from the rest of Angola by part of Democratic Republic of Congo.

Origins of names: 

1. Cabinda: From an ethnic group of the same name.
2. Luanda: From a native word luanda = tax. Shellfish caught there were sent as tribute to the king of Congo.
3. Namibe: From the Namib Desert (see also Namibia).
4. Zaire: From the Zaïre River, from Kikongo nzadi = river (see also Democratic Republic of Congo).

Change history: 

1. 1900: The provinces were Benguella, Kongo, Loanda, Lunda, and Mossamedes. According to source [3] (1911), "Angola is divided into five districts: four on the coast, the fifth, Lunda, wholly inland, being the N.E. part of the province. ... The coast divisions of Angola are Congo on the N. (from the river Congo to the river Loje), ... Loanda [the 105 m. of coast, with its hinterland, between the mouths of the rivers Dande and Kwanza]; Benguella and Mossamedes to the south. Mossamedes is again divided into two portions--the coast region and the hinterland, known as Huilla." Source [4] (1957) says that Angola was "reorganized and divided into 5 provinces [in] 1934." The provinces in 1950 were Benguela, Bié, Huíla, Congo (or Luanda), and Malange. Source [5] (1957) lists the following divisions:

Province	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Benguela	1,226,017	132,110	51,008	Benguela
Bié	710,841	453,667	175,162	Silva Pôrto
Cabinda	50,506	7,270	2,807	Cabinda
Congo	734,067	156,839	60,556	Uíge
Huíla	548,545	223,169	86,166	Mossâmedes
Luanda	164,340	1,549	598	Luanda
Malange	710,950	272,089	105,054	Malange
7 divisions	4,145,266	1,246,693	481,351
Province: Cabinda and Luanda are autonomous districts. Population: 1950-12-30 census (sources [5, 8]).

1. 1951: Name of country changed from Portuguese West Africa to Angola.
2. Between 1951 and ~1963, Benguela was split into Benguela, Cuanza Sul, and Huambo; Bié was split into Bié-Cuando Cubango and Moxico; Huíla was split into Moçâmedes and Huíla; Congo was split into Congo and Cuanza Norte; and Malange was split into Lunda and Malange. At this time, a comparison of populations and areas before and after the changes shows that Benguela must have transferred about 17,700 km.² to Bié and Malange, and Congo must have transferred about 33,060 km.² to Luanda. The following table comes from source [6].

Province	Pop-1960	Pop-1950	Area(km.²)
Benguela	487,871	328,765	38,960
Bié-Cuando Cubango	567,253	475,956	263,730
Cabinda	58,453	50,506	7,270
Congo	503,178	400,153	92,570
Cuanza-Norte	263,101	216,463	31,210
Cuanza-Sul	405,012	296,610	44,850
Huambo	598,545	567,062	30,600
Huíla	592,451	503,605	188,830
Luanda	347,173	281,791	34,610
Lunda	247,449	266,087	166,880
Malanje	451,719	461,653	114,060
Moçâmedes	43,393	44,940	34,340
Moxico	267,079	251,675	198,790
Total	4,832,677	4,145,266	1,246,700
Pop-1960: 1960-12-30 census Pop-1950: 1950-12-30 census (proleptic)

1. Between ~1963 and 1967, Congo was split into Uíge and Zaire.
2. ~1971: Bié-Cuando Cubango province (capital Silva Pôrto) split into Bié and Cuando Cubango.
3. 1975-11-11: Angola changed from overseas province of Portugal to independent country.
4. ~1975: Huíla province (capital Sá da Bandeira) split into Cunene and Huíla.
5. ~1976: Name of capital of Zaïre province changed from São Salvador do Congo to M'banza Congo; name of capital of Cuanza Norte province changed from Vila Salazar to N'dalatando; name of capital of Bié province changed from Silva Pôrto to Bié; name of capital of Huambo province changed from Nova Lisboa to Huambo; name of capital of Cunene province changed from Pereira d'Eça to Ondjiva.
6. ~1978: Lunda province (capital Saurimo) split into Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul; name of capital of Bié province changed from Bié to Kuito.
7. 1985: Name of Moçâmedes (province and capital) changed to Namibe; name of Malange province and city changed to Malanje; Luanda province (capital Luanda) split into Bengo and Luanda.
8. There have also been minor boundary changes.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Benguela: Benguella (obsolete)
2. Cuando Cubango: Kuando Kubango, Kwando-Kubango (variant)
3. Cuanza Norte: Cuanza-Nord (French); Kwanza Norte (obsolete)
4. Cuanza Sul: Cuanza-Sud (French); Kwanza Sul (obsolete)
5. Luanda: Loanda (obsolete)
6. Malanje: Malange (variant)
7. Namibe: Moçâmedes, Mossamedes (obsolete)

Sources: 

1. [1] L'Évaluation des effectifs de la population des pays Africains, Tome I. Groupe de Démographie Africaine, Paris, 1982.
2. [2] Library of Congress country study .
3. [3] Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911 edition  (retrieved 2005-02-01).
4. [4] Webster's Geographical Dictionary. G. & C. Merriam Co., Springfield, MA, 1957.
5. [5] The Encyclopædia Britannica World Atlas, 1957 edition.
6. [6] The Encyclopædia Britannica World Atlas, 1964 edition.
7. [7] Website of the Embassy of Angola in India  (dated 2005; retrieved 2011-02-19).
8. [8] Demographic Yearbook , 7th Ed. Statistical Office of the United Nations, New York, 1955. This source calls Luanda a concelho, not a district (retrieved 2011-08-20).