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Updates: 

Cameroon took a census in 2005-11. The results weren't released until 2010, along with projected populations as of 2010-01-01.

Update 10 to Geopolitical Entities and Codes (formerly FIPS 10-4) is dated 2012-12-31. It changes the English spelling of one region from Center to Centre.

On 2006-06-12, Nigeria and Cameroon signed an agreement transferring the Bakassi Peninsula from Nigeria to Cameroon. This transfer is in compliance with a 2002 decision by the International Court of Justice. The transfer should be fully implemented within two years. The area will now be in Sud-Ouest region. A post to Wikipedia says that it measures about 700 km².

Correction: In "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries", 1982 was given as the date for a reorganization, in which Centre-Sud province was split into Centre and Sud, and Nord province was split into Adamaoua, Extrême-Nord, and Nord. The correct date is 1983-08-22. According to Geographic Notes for 1985-09-30, published by the U.S. State Department, that was the date of Presidential decree 83-390. I have greatly augmented the change history, as shown below.

Country overview: 

Short name	CAMEROON
ISO code	CM
FIPS code	CM
Languages	French (fr), English (en)
Time zone	+1
Capital	Yaoundé

 

In 1900, the German protectorate of Kamerun covered a little more territory than Cameroon does now. On 1911-11-04, it was augmented by a cession of 270,000 sq. km. taken from French Equatorial Africa. In 1916-01, during World War I, France and England seized Kamerun from Germany. France immediately re-integrated its 1911 cession into French Equatorial Africa. On 1922-07-20, former Kamerun was mandated partly to England (90,000 sq. km.) and partly to France (700,000 sq. km.). The British mandate (British Cameroons) was treated as two parts: Northern and Southern Cameroons. After World War II, the mandate was converted to a trust territory under the aegis of the United Nations. The French mandate became the territory of Cameroun. Cameroun gained its independence from France on 1960-01-01. Southern Cameroons united with it on 1961-10-01.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Cameroun
2. Dutch: Kameroen, Republiek Kameroen (formal)
3. English: Republic of Cameroon (formal), Cameroons (obsolete), Cameroun (obsolete), Kamerun (obsolete)
4. Finnish: Kamerun
5. French: Cameroun, République f du Cameroun m (formal)
6. German: Kamerun n
7. Icelandic: Kamerún
8. Italian: Camerun m
9. Norwegian: Kamerun, Republikken Kamerun (formal)
10. Portuguese: Camarões, República f dos Camarões mp (formal)
11. Russian: Республика Камерун (formal)
12. Spanish: Camerún, República f del Camerún m (formal)
13. Swedish: Kamerun
14. Turkish: Kamerun Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

from the Cameroon River, Portuguese Rio dos Camarões: Crayfish River

Primary subdivisions: 

Cameroon is divided into ten régions (regions).

Region	HASC	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital	Former
Adamaoua	CM.AD	CM10	884,289	63,691	24,591	Ngaoundéré	Nord
Centre	CM.CE	CM11	3,098,044	68,926	26,612	Yaoundé	Centre-Sud
Est	CM.ES	CM04	771,755	109,011	42,089	Bertoua	Est
Extrême-Nord	CM.EN	CM12	3,111,792	34,246	13,222	Maroua	Nord
Littoral	CM.LT	CM05	2,510,263	20,239	7,814	Douala	Littoral
Nord	CM.NO	CM13	1,687,959	65,576	25,319	Garoua	Nord
Nord-Ouest	CM.NW	CM07	1,728,953	17,812	6,877	Bamenda	Nord-Ouest
Ouest	CM.OU	CM08	1,720,047	13,872	5,356	Bafoussam	Ouest
Sud	CM.SU	CM14	634,655	47,110	18,189	Ebolowa	Centre-Sud
Sud-Ouest	CM.SW	CM09	1,316,079	24,571	9,487	Buéa	Sud-Ouest
10 regions			17,463,836	465,054	179,556
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. If periods are replaced by hyphens, these are the same as the region codes from ISO standard 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Population: 2005-11-11 census (source [8]). Former: Pre-1983 province containing this area

 

The two-letter ISO codes (that is, the last two letters of the HASC codes) are used as the first two letters of a license plate number to indicate the vehicle's region of origin. The Universal Postal Union recommends using the ISO codes in postal addresses.

The Ethnia  site seems to think that the name of Nord region is East Benue, but I haven't seen that name used anywhere else.

Further subdivisions:

See the Departments of Cameroon page.

The regions are subdivided into départements, which are in turn subdivided into arrondissements. There are districts subordinate to some arrondissements. The number of départements has changed from time to time. There were 33 in ~1965, 39 in ~1982, 49 in ~1987, and 58 in 2000.

Territorial extent: 

The UN LOCODE page  for Cameroon 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: 

1. Adamaoua: conquered by Moddibo (King) Adama in the early 19th century
2. Extrême-Nord: French for Far North
3. Littoral: French for Coastal

Change history: 

1. In 1900, the German protectorate of Kamerun covered a little more territory than Cameroon does now. In 1908, Germany ceded a duck-bill-shaped region east of the Logone River to French Kongo (Chad). On 1911-11-04, Kamerun was augmented by a cession of 278,000 sq. km. taken from the Congo territory in French Equatorial Africa. In 1916-01, during World War I, France and England seized Kamerun from Germany. France immediately re-integrated its 1911 cession into French Equatorial Africa. On 1922-07-20, former Kamerun was mandated partly to England (89,270 sq. km.) and partly to France (710,000 sq. km., including the cession of 1911, which was restored to Congo). The British mandate (British Cameroons) was treated as two parts: Northern and Southern Cameroons. After World War II, the mandate was converted to a trust territory under the aegis of the United Nations. The French mandate became the French territory of Cameroun. Cameroun gained its independence from France on 1960-01-01. Southern Cameroons united with it on 1961-10-01. Northern Cameroons later joined Nigeria.
2. In 1949, Southern Cameroons was divided into two provinces: Bamenda (capital Bamenda) and Southern (capital Buea). They correspond to the present-day Nord-Ouest and Sud-Ouest region, respectively.
3. After World War II, Cameroun consisted of fourteen regions. By 1960, the number had grown to nineteen. The following table combines the data from the 1946 census with those from the 1951 census. I deduced which 1951 regions corresponded with each of the 1946 regions by comparing areas and populations, and taking geographical proximity into account. It may be that some transfers of territory took place. Spelling variations are reproduced from sources [6] and [7].

Region	Pop-1946	Area(km.²)	Region	Pop-1951	Area(km.²)
Adamaoua	156,202	67,000	Adamawa	166,663	67,300
Bamiléké	394,549	7,000	Bamileké	450,579	7,000
Bamoun	75,086	7,300	Bamoun	83,064	7,500
Benoué	251,648	60,900	Benoué	265,027	61,600
Haut-Nyong	80,766	39,100	Haut-Nyong	79,445	39,900
Kribi	47,080	12,400	Kribi	50,662	13,000
Lom et Kadei	122,789	95,000	Lom-et-Kadei	101,375	51,000
			Boumba-Ngoko	25,724	44,000
M'Bam	106,349	32,500	M'bam	104,981	32,900
Moungo	123,333	10,300	Moungo	88,540	4,500
			N'kam	43,766	5,700
Nord-Cameroun	664,851	30,000	Diamare	434,817	14,200
			Logone-et-Chari	71,577	13,000
			Margui Wandala	262,151	7,200
N'Tem	151,372	35,200	N'tem	91,396	15,000
			Dja-et-Lobo	71,711	19,000
Nyong et Sanaga	446,108	28,300	Nyong-et-Sanaga	406,969	10,000
Sanaga-Maritime	160,552	14,700	Sanaga-Maritime	163,553	18,000
Wouri	39,106	1,200	Wouri	115,080	1,200
14 regions	2,819,791	440,900	19 regions	3,077,080	432,000
Pop-1946: 1946 census (Europeans and assimilated population only) plus 1946 estimates of African population Pop-1951: 1951 census (Europeans only) plus 1952 estimates of African population

1. 1960-01-01: Cameroun (English name Cameroon) gained its independence from France.
2. 1961-10-01: Southern Cameroons united with Cameroon. The new country consisted of two federal states: East Cameroon (capital Yaoundé, FIPS code CM01) and West Cameroon (capital Buea, FIPS code CM02). East Cameroon was equivalent to the old Cameroon, and West Cameroon was the same as Southern Cameroons. At some point, possibly here, the status of regions was changed to departments.
3. ~1963: Number of departments in East Cameroon increased to thirty. I don't have before-and-after maps showing the details. Tentatively, Bamiléké split into Bamboutos, Haut-Nkam, Ménoua, Mifi, and Ndé; Mayo-Danaï split from Diamaré; Lom-et-Kadeï split into Lom-et-Djerem and Kadeï; and Nyong-et-Sanaga split into Haute-Sanaga, Lékié, Méfou, Nyong-et-Kéllé, Nyong-et-Mfoumou, and Nyong-et-So'o.
4. 1968-08: On a Defense Department map of this date, West Cameroon federal state consists of six "divisions". East Cameroon federal state consists of thirty departments.
5. ~1968: The Times Atlas of the World, Comprehensive Edition, shows Cameroon subdivided into West Cameroon (French: Cameroun Occidental) and five lower-level divisions named Centre-Sud, Est, Littoral, Nord, and Ouest.
6. 1972-06-02: New constitution adopted, following a referendum (1972-05-21) on forming a unitary state. It was probably on or about this date that the two federal states were abolished, and the seven provinces listed in the following table became the new first-level subdivisions.

Province	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Capital	Consists of
Centre-Sud	CM03	1,491,945	117,500	Yaoundé	Dja-et-Lobo, Haute-Sanaga, Kribi, Lékié, Mbam, Méfou, Ntem, Nyong-et-Kéllé, Nyong-et-Mfoumou, Nyong-et-So'o
Est	CM04	366,235	111,200	Bertoua	Bouma-Ngoko, Haut-Nyong, Kadeï, Lom-et-Djerem
Littoral	CM05	935,166	20,800	Douala	Moungo, Nkam, Sanaga-Maritime, Wouri
Nord	CM06	2,233,257	164,300	Garoua	Adamaoua, Bénoué, Diamaré, Logone-et-Chari, Margui-Wandala, Mayo Danaï
Nord-Ouest	CM07	980,531	17,812	Bamenda	Bamenda, Nkambe, Wum
Ouest	CM08	1,035,597	13,500	Bafoussam	Bamboutos, Bamoun, Haut-Nkam, Ménoua, Mifi, Ndé
Sud-Ouest	CM09	620,515	24,571	Buéa	Kumba, Mamfe, Victoria
7 provinces		7,663,246	469,683
Population: 1976-04-09 census Consists of: divisions (Nord-Ouest and Sud-Ouest) or departments contained in each province, based on the 1968-08 DoD map

1. 1983-08-22: Centre-Sud province split into two provinces: Centre and Sud. Nord province split into three provinces: Adamaoua, Nord, and Extrême-Nord.
2. 2008-11-12: Status of provinces changed to regions.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. All the directional names (Centre, Est, etc.) can be translated.
2. Adamaoua: Adamaua (Portuguese), Adamawa (English)
3. Littoral: Litoral (Portuguese, Spanish)

Population history:

Region	1976-04-09	1987-04-28	2005-11-11
Adamaoua	359,334	495,185	884,289
Centre	1,176,743	1,651,600	3,098,044
Est	366,235	517,198	771,755
Extrême-Nord	1,394,765	1,855,695	3,111,792
Littoral	935,166	1,352,833	2,510,263
Nord	479,158	832,165	1,687,959
Nord-Ouest	980,531	1,237,348	1,728,953
Ouest	1,035,597	1,339,791	1,720,047
Sud	315,202	373,798	634,655
Sud-Ouest	620,515	838,042	1,316,079
Total	7,663,246	10,493,655	17,463,836

 

Source [8] has the results of the censuses of 1976, 1987, and 2005. The 1976 figures differed slightly from source [4], by amounts ranging from 0 to a few hundred in different regions. I've taken source [8] as authoritative.

Sources: 

1. [1] "Annuaire Statistique du Cameroun 2006", Institut National de la Statistique du Cameroun. Population data derived by adding the populations of departments belonging to each region.
2. [2] The Statesman's Yearbook 2006, ed. Barry Turner. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hampshire 2005. Lists estimated populations of regions as of 2001, rounded to the nearest 100.
3. [3] The Europa World Year Book 2001 has figures for the 1987 census.
4. [4] The Statesman's Yearbook 1988-89. St. Martin's Press, New York 1988. Shows 1976 census figures, presumably corrected to match the new regions of 1983.
5. [5] Neba, Aaron S., "Modern Geography of the Republic of Cameroon, 2nd Edition". Neba Publishers, Camden, N.J. 1987.
6. [6] Encyclopædia Britannica World Atlas, 1951 edition.
7. [7] Encyclopædia Britannica World Atlas, 1957 edition.
8. [8] Annuaire Statistique du Cameroun 2011 , Chapter 4: Population Characteristics. Institut National de la Statistique, Yaoundé, 2013-01 (retrieved 2013-11-19).