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Updates: 

Update 8 to Geopolitical Entities and Codes, the successor to FIPS standard 10-4, is dated 2012-05-01. It changes the recognized primary subdivisions from the provinces to the regions.

Newsletter II-2, an update to the ISO 3166-2 standard, is dated 2010-06-30. It assigns ISO codes to the regions, as shown below. They're the same as the codes I had previously arbitrarily assigned to the regions.

Country overview: 

Short name	BURKINA FASO
ISO code	BF
FIPS code	UV
Language	French (fr)
Time zone	0
Capital	Ouagadougou

 

The area now known as Burkina Faso was part of French Sudan at the beginning of the 20th century. French colonial control was not yet firmly established, and borders were indefinite. In 1904, the colony of Upper Senegal and Niger was created. On 1919-03-01, it was broken up, and Upper Volta was one of the parts thus formed. On 1932-09-06, Upper Volta was partitioned among Ivory Coast, French Sudan, and Niger, but this change was nullified on 1947-09-04. The country gained its independence on 1960-08-05, and changed its name to Burkina Faso in 1984.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Burkina Faso
2. Dutch: Burkina Faso, Opper Volta (obsolete)
3. English: People's Democratic Republic of Burkina Faso (formal), Burkina (informal), Upper Volta (obsolete), Voltaic Republic (obsolete)
4. Finnish: Burkina Faso, Ylä-Volta (obsolete)
5. French: Burkina m, Burkina Faso m, République f Démocratique Populaire de Burkina Faso (formal), Haute Volta f (obsolete)
6. German: Burkina Faso n, Obervolta (obsolete)
7. Icelandic: Búrkína Fasó
8. Italian: Burkina Faso, Alto Volta m (obsolete)
9. Norwegian: Burkina Faso
10. Portuguese: Burkina Faso m, Burquina Faso m, Alto Volta m (obsolete)
11. Russian: Буркина Фасо
12. Spanish: Burkina Faso, Alto Volta (obsolete)
13. Swedish: Burkina Faso
14. Turkish: Burkina Faso

Origin of name: 

Fatherland of honest men (Moré burkina: worthy, Dioula faso: fatherland)

Primary subdivisions: 

Burkina Faso is divided into 13 régions (regions).

Region	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Pop-2006	Pop-1996	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Boucle du Mouhoun	BF.BO	01	UV79	1,434,847	1,184,756	34,153	13,187	Dédougou
Cascades	BF.CD	02	UV80	524,956	334,303	18,406	7,107	Banfora
Centre	BF.CT	03	UV81	1,523,980	941,894	2,805	1,083	Ouagadougou
Centre Est	BF.CE	04	UV82	1,132,023	853,099	11,811	4,560	Tenkodogo
Centre Nord	BF.CN	05	UV83	1,203,073	927,492	19,829	7,656	Kaya
Centre Ouest	BF.CO	06	UV84	1,183,473	943,568	21,722	8,387	Koudougou
Centre Sud	BF.CS	07	UV85	638,379	530,696	11,321	4,371	Manga
Est	BF.ES	08	UV86	1,209,399	853,706	46,256	17,860	Fada N'Gourma
Hauts Bassins	BF.HB	09	UV87	1,410,284	1,031,427	25,344	9,785	Bobo Dioulasso
Nord	BF.NO	10	UV88	1,182,770	960,071	16,207	6,258	Ouahigouya
Plateau Central	BF.PC	11	UV89	693,137	570,154	8,544	3,299	Ziniaré
Sahel	BF.SA	12	UV90	969,881	708,732	35,350	13,649	Dori
Sud-Ouest	BF.SO	13	UV91	624,056	485,391	16,202	6,256	Gaoua
Total				13,730,258	10,325,289	267,950	103,456
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Region codes from ISO 3166-2. For full identification in a global context, prefix "BF-" to the code (ex: BF-12 represents Sahel). Pop-2006: 2006-12-23 census, preliminary results. Pop-1996: 1996-12-10 census.

 

Populations and areas were calculated by adding the figures for the component secondary subdivisions. Their areas, in turn, were calculated by dividing the province population by population density (source [1]), and will not generally be accurate to more than three places.

Further subdivisions:

See the Provinces of Burkina Faso page and Departments of Burkina Faso page.

The regions are subdivided into 45 provinces, which are subdivided into 351 départements.

Territorial extent: 

The UN LOCODE page  for Burkina Faso lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Origins of names of subdivisions:

1. Boucle du Mouhoun: Bend of the Mouhoun River (French boucle = buckle)
2. Cascades: Waterfalls
3. Centre, Centre-Est, Centre-Nord, Centre-Ouest, Est, Nord, Sud-Ouest: Describes their position within the country
4. Hauts Bassins: High [River] Basins
5. Ouagadougou: Possibly from Moré ouaga: come here, Dioula dougou: village
6. Plateau Central: central plateau
7. Sahel: originally Arabic sahil: seacoast, applied by mistake to the region north of Timbuktu, and later to any semi-arid land near the Sahara. The French botanist Auguste Chevalier asked natives what lay to the north; they thought he meant at the end of the caravan trails to the Mediterranean.
8. Volta-Noire: Black Volta, from the name of a branch of the Volta River, whose name comes from Portuguese volta: turn

Change history: 

1. 1960-08-05: Upper Volta became independent. At this time, it had four départements (departments).

Department	FIPS	Capital
Centre	UV01	Ouagadougou
Est	UV02	Fada-N'Gourma
Hauts-Bassins	UV03	Bobo-Dioulasso
Volta-Noire	UV04	Koudougou

1. 1966-03-10: The secondary subdivisions were 83 cercles (circles). On this date, 39 circles were merged with others, leaving 44 circles.
2. ~1967: Sahel department (capital Ouahigouya) formed from parts of Centre and Volta-Noire. Its creation had been approved in 1963, but a period of uncertainty ensued before the department was actually formed.
3. 1974-06-07: Status of circles changed to sous-préfectures (subprefectures). Centre-Est department split from Est. Centre-Nord department split from Centre. Centre-Ouest department split from Volta-Noire. Nord department split from Sahel, in such a way that the territory of Nord was exactly the same as the part of Sahel that had been taken from Volta-Noire in ~1967. Sud-Ouest department split from Hauts-Bassins. This was the result:

Department	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Capital	New provinces
Centre	UV05	944,706	21,952	Ouagadougou	Bazèga, part of Boulkiemdé, Ganzourgou, Kadiogo, Naouri, Oubritenga, Zoundwéogo
Centre-Est	UV06	404,602	11,266	Tenkodogo	Boulgou, Kouritenga
Centre-Nord	UV07	632,285	21,578	Kaya	Bam, Namentenga, part of Passoré, Sanmatenga
Centre-Ouest	UV08	788,962	26,324	Koudougou	most of Boulkiemdé, most of Passoré, Sanguié, Sissili
Est	UV09	407,215	49,992	Fada-N'Gourma	Gnagna, Gourma, Tapoa
Hauts-Bassins	UV10	582,810	43,172	Bobo-Dioulasso	Houet, Kénédougou, Komoé
Nord	UV11	530,192	12,293	Ouahigouya	Yatenga
Sahel	UV12	354,079	36,869	Dori	Oudalan, Séno, Soum
Sud-Ouest	UV13	357,592	17,448	Gaoua	Bougouriba, Poni
Volta-Noire	UV14	635,760	33,106	Dédougou	Kossi, Mouhoun, Sourou
10 departments		5,638,203	274,000
Population: 1975-12-07 census FIPS: Department codes from FIPS PUB 10-3. New provinces: Province(s) formed from this department in 1984.

1. 1984-08-03: Name of country changed to Burkina Faso. ISO code was HV before the name change. (Source [2] says that the spelling "Bourkina-Fasso" was official from 1984-08-04 to 1984-08-15.)
2. (aside) Burkina Faso is probably the most widely-heard, least-understood insult in history. On 1983-08-04, Thomas Sankara took power from Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo in a coup d'état. Sankara went on to choose a new name for the country meaning "fatherland of honest men". We can conclude that he was insinuating that Ouedraogo had been dishonest.
3. 1984-08-15: The ten departments were reorganized into thirty provinces. This table shows the new provinces.

Province	ISO	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Bam	BAM	UV15	164,263	4,017	1,551	Kongoussi
Bazèga	BAZ	UV16	306,976	5,313	2,051	Kombissiri
Bougouriba	BGR	UV17	221,522	7,087	2,736	Diébougou
Boulgou	BLG	UV18	403,358	9,033	3,488	Tenkodogo
Boulkiemdé	BLK	UV19	363,594	4,138	1,598	Koudougou
Ganzourgou	GAN	UV20	196,006	4,087	1,578	Zorgo
Gnagna	GNA	UV21	229,249	8,600	3,320	Bogandé
Gourma	GOU	UV22	294,123	26,613	10,275	Fada-N'Gourma
Houet	HOU	UV23	585,031	16,472	6,360	Bobo-Dioulasso
Kadiogo	KAD	UV24	459,138	1,169	451	Ouagadougou
Kénédougou	KEN	UV25	139,722	8,307	3,207	Orodara
Komoé	KOM	UV26	250,510	18,393	7,102	Banfora
Kossi	KOS	UV27	330,413	13,177	5,088	Nouna
Kouritenga	KOT	UV28	197,027	1,627	628	Koupéla
Mouhoun	MOU	UV29	289,213	10,442	4,032	Dédougou
Namentenga	NAM	UV30	198,798	7,755	2,994	Boulsa
Naouri	NAO	UV31	105,273	3,843	1,484	Pô
Oubritenga	OUB	UV32	303,229	4,693	1,812	Ziniaré
Oudalan	OUD	UV33	105,715	10,046	3,879	Gorom-Gorom
Passoré	PAS	UV34	225,115	4,078	1,575	Yako
Poni	PON	UV35	234,501	10,361	4,000	Gaoua
Sanguié	SNG	UV36	218,289	5,165	1,994	Réo
Sanmatenga	SMT	UV37	368,365	9,213	3,557	Kaya
Séno	SEN	UV38	230,043	13,473	5,202	Dori
Sissili	SIS	UV39	246,844	13,736	5,303	Léo
Soum	SOM	UV40	190,464	13,350	5,154	Djibo
Sourou	SOR	UV41	267,770	9,487	3,663	Tougan
Tapoa	TAP	UV42	159,121	14,780	5,707	Diapaga
Yatenga	YAT	UV43	537,205	12,292	4,746	Ouahigouya
Zoundwéogo	ZOU	UV44	155,142	3,453	1,333	Manga
30 provinces			7,976,019	274,200	105,868
ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Population: 1985-12-10 census

1. 1997-01: Fifteen new provinces formed. The resulting set of 45 provinces is still valid, but since 2001 has formed the secondary administrative level of Burkina Faso. See Provinces of Burkina Faso.
2. 2001-07-02: The provinces were grouped into thirteen regions, as shown in the main table above.

Sources: 

1. [1] Kibare website (http://kibare.club.fr/bproj01c.htm, dead link; retrieved 2005-06-23).
2. [2] World Statesmen  website (retrieved 2004-10-19).
3. [3] 2006 Census  (preliminary results; retrieved 2009-01-10).
4. [4] Ministry for Territorial Administration and Decentralization (http://www.matd.gov.bf/deconcent/lesdepart.html, dead link; document dated 2004, retrieved 2005-06-23).