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Updates: 

I updated the main table to show legal populations with the statistical reference date 2010-01-01.

Country overview: 

Short name	FRENCH GUIANA
ISO code	GF
FIPS code	FG
Language	French (fr)
Time zone	-3
Capital	Cayenne

 

French Guiana has been linked to France throughout the 20th century, first as a colony, then as a remote but integral part of the country. French Guiana has a NUTS code of FR93 (as a region, or FR930 as a department), a department code of 973, and postal codes of the form 973xx, all of which are extensions of the French system.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Fransk Guyana
2. Dutch: Frans Guyana
3. English: Department of Guiana (formal)
4. French: Guyane f française
5. German: Französisch-Guayana
6. Icelandic: Franska Gvæjana
7. Italian: Guyana f Francese, Guayana Francese (variant)
8. Norwegian: Guiana
9. Portuguese: Guiana f Francesa
10. Russian: Французская Гвиана
11. Spanish: Guayana f Francesa
12. Swedish: Franska Guyana
13. Turkish: Fransız Guyanası

Origin of name: 

Descriptive: French colony in the Guyana area.

Primary subdivisions: 

French Guiana is divided into two arrondissements.

Name	HASC	INSEE	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)
Cayenne	GF.CY	9731	156,734	49,500	19,100
Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni	GF.SL	9732	74,433	40,500	15,600
2 arrondissements			231,167	90,000	34,700
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. INSEE: Arrondissement code according to Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques. Population: Legal population 2010-01-01. Capitals have the same names as their arrondissements.

Further subdivisions:

See the Communes of French Guiana page.

The arrondissements are further subdivided into 22 communes and 19 cantons.

Territorial extent: 

Most of French Guiana's islands belong to Cayenne. They include the Îles Connétable, Îles Rémire, and Îles du Salut, one of which is Devil's Island (Île du Diable).

The UN LOCODE page  for French Guiana 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: 

Cayenne: Old French cayenne: seaport hostelry.

Change history: 

1. 1930-07-06: French Guiana divided into two territories, French Guiana (along the Atlantic coast; estimated area 20,000 km.²) and Inini (inland; 70,000 km.²).
2. 1947-01-01: French Guiana and Inini reunited, changed from colony to département d'outre-mer (overseas department). Nominally, this status is on a par with the metropolitan French departments.
3. 1951-09-14: French Guiana subdivided into two arrondissements, Cayenne (along the Atlantic coast) and Inini (inland).

Name	Pop-1946	Pop-1954	Pop-1961	Area(km.²)
Cayenne	24,118	24,629	30,525	12,500
Inini	5.042	3,234	2,980	78,500
Total	29,160	27,863	33,505	91,000
Pop-1946: 1946 census. Pop-1954: 1954-07-01 census. Pop-1961: 1961-10-09 census.

1. 1969-03-17: French Guiana reorganized into two arrondissements, Cayenne and Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni. Both began at the coast and extended inland to the southern end of the country; thus, new Cayenne was neither a subdivision nor an enlargement of old Cayenne.
2. 1973-09-25: French Guiana, while remaining an overseas department, became also a region of France.

Population history:

Arrondissement	1967-10-16	1974-10-16	1982-03-09	1990-03-15	1999-03-08	2010-01-01
Cayenne	36,270	45,892	61,587	88,689	119,341	156,734
Saint-Laurent du Maroni	8,122	9,233	11,435	25,989	37,449	74,433
Total	44,392	55,125	73,022	114,678	156,790	231,167

 

Data for 1967-1999 from source [4]; I assume that the 1967 data are proleptic, because the arrondissements were different then.

Sources: 

1. [1] Recensement de la population , Guyane. Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (INSEE), Paris, 2010-10. (Retrieved 2011-11-25.)
2. [2] Masson, Jean-Louis. Provinces, Départements, Régions. Paris: Éditions Fernand Lanore, 1984.
3. [3] Demographic Yearbook , 7th Ed. Statistical Office of the United Nations, New York, 1955 (retrieved 2011-08-20).
4. [4] Résultats du recensement de la population  (retrieved 2013-05-04).
5. [5] Populations légales 2010 ... . Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (retrieved 2013-05-04).