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Updates: 

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter number II-1, dated 2010-02-03, changes the names of the seven governorates by deleting the prefix "Gouvernorat de" from each one.

ISO 3166-2 has come out in a second edition, dated 2007-12-15. Previously, ISO had designated Conakry as a city, and coded it as if it were on the administrative region level. Now its status is listed as zone spéciale (special zone), and it's on the same level as the prefectures. I've added the code for Conakry to the table below.

When "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries" was written, the current version of the ISO 3166-2 standard erroneously assigned a code of KD to both Kindia and Koundara prefectures. In order to get unique codes, I arbitrarily changed the code for Kindia to KI. Later, ISO 3166-2 was updated to fix the anomaly, and the fix they adopted was to change the code for Koundara to KN. In 2004, I added text from the book to the website. In so doing, I accidentally used the old ISO codes with my arbitrary correction as HASC codes. I am now updating the HASC codes to be consistent with the ISO codes.

I found 1998 population estimates in a report titled "Le redéploiement des enseignants en Guinée ", by Alamah Conde and Mamadou Aliou Sow (see Annexe 1).

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-2 was published on 2002-05-21. It contains two changes for Guinea. The status of Conakry is changed from gouvernorat (governorate) to ville (city). According to FIPS, Conakry is a capitale d'état - zone spéciale (national capital - special zone). The other change is to the code for Koundara. The original ISO 3166-2 standard had incorrectly assigned the same code, KD, to both Kindia and Koundara. The update changes the code for Koundara to KN.

Change Notice 7 to FIPS PUB 10-4 is dated 2002-01-10. It reflects changes that are already shown in the book "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries", and in ISO standard 3166-2.

Country overview: 

Short name	GUINEA
ISO code	GN
FIPS code	GV
Language	French (fr)
Time zone	+0
Capital	Conakry

 

Guinea was known as French Guinea in 1900. In 1943, it and seven other French colonies were combined to form French West Africa (Afrique Occidentale Française, capital Dakar). Guinea became independent on 1958-10-02.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Guinea
2. Dutch: Guinee, Republiek Guinee (formal)
3. English: Republic of Guinea (formal), French Guinea (obsolete), Guinea-Conakry (variant)
4. Finnish: Guinea
5. French: Guinée f, République f de Guinée (formal), Guinée française (obsolete)
6. German: Guinea n
7. Icelandic: Gínea
8. Italian: Guinea f
9. Norwegian: Guinea, Republikken Guinea (formal)
10. Portuguese: Guiné f, Guiné-Conacri, República f da Guiné f (formal)
11. Russian: Гвинейская Республика (formal), Гвинея
12. Spanish: Guinea, República f de Guinea f (formal), Guinea Francesa (obsolete)
13. Swedish: Guinea
14. Turkish: Gine Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

Tuareg aginaw: speechless people, applied by Berbers to blacks speaking unknown tongues

Primary subdivisions: 

Guinea is divided into 34 préfectures. FIPS calls them régions administratives (administrative regions). ISO calls Conakry a gouvernorat (governorate).

Prefecture	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Gov
Beyla	GN.BE	BE	GV01	167,461	17,452	6,738	N
Boffa	GN.BF	BF	GV02	156,949	9,100	3,514	B
Boké	GN.BK	BK	GV03	294,314	11,053	4,268	B
Conakry	GN.CK	C	GV04	1,094,075	308	119	C
Coyah	GN.CO	CO	GV30	85,106	2,166	836	D
Dabola	GN.DB	DB	GV05	110,965	5,508	2,127	F
Dalaba	GN.DL	DL	GV06	136,947	4,400	1,699	M
Dinguiraye	GN.DI	DI	GV07	137,138	14,500	5,598	F
Dubréka	GN.DU	DU	GV31	131,750	5,676	2,192	D
Faranah	GN.FA	FA	GV09	147,743	13,000	5,019	F
Forécariah	GN.FO	FO	GV10	201,193	4,200	1,622	D
Fria	GN.FR	FR	GV11	80,903	1,811	699	B
Gaoual	GN.GA	GA	GV12	137,599	11,500	4,440	B
Guéckédou	GN.GU	GU	GV13	348,053	4,400	1,699	N
Kankan	GN.KA	KA	GV32	262,567	11,564	4,465	K
Kérouané	GN.KE	KE	GV15	153,913	9,750	3,764	K
Kindia	GN.KD	KD	GV16	288,007	9,115	3,519	D
Kissidougou	GN.KS	KS	GV17	205,836	8,872	3,425	F
Koubia	GN.KB	KB	GV33	91,889	2,800	1,081	L
Koundara	GN.KN	KN	GV18	90,919	5,505	2,125	B
Kouroussa	GN.KO	KO	GV19	149,325	16,220	6,263	K
Labé	GN.LA	LA	GV34	251,504	3,014	1,164	L
Lélouma	GN.LE	LE	GV35	136,643	2,140	826	L
Lola	GN.LO	LO	GV36	134,649	3,940	1,521	N
Macenta	GN.MC	MC	GV21	281,053	8,600	3,320	N
Mali	GN.ML	ML	GV22	211,190	9,790	3,780	L
Mamou	GN.MM	MM	GV23	236,125	8,000	3,089	M
Mandiana	GN.MD	MD	GV37	170,881	12,300	4,749	K
Nzérékoré	GN.NZ	NZ	GV38	282,903	4,625	1,786	N
Pita	GN.PI	PI	GV25	238,760	4,320	1,668	M
Siguiri	GN.SI	SI	GV39	271,594	15,500	5,985	K
Télimélé	GN.TE	TE	GV27	227,714	9,000	3,475	D
Tougué	GN.TO	TO	GV28	114,377	6,400	2,471	L
Yomou	GN.YO	YO	GV29	135,215	6,000	2,317	N
34 prefectures				7,164,893	245,857	94,926
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Population: 1998 estimate Capitals: Names are the same as the administrative region names. Gov: Code for the governorate to which the region belongs, as in table below.

Further subdivisions:

See the Subprefectures of Guinea page.

The prefectures are subdivided into 335 sous-préfectures (subprefectures) and five communes (the communes are in Conakry). These, in turn, are subdivided into districts and sectors. The prefectures are also grouped into seven governorates and one administrative zone, Conakry.

Region	ISO	Population	Area(km.²)
Boké	B	601,682	38,969
Conakry	C	1,094,075	308
Faranah	F	601,682	41,880
Kankan	K	1,008,260	65,334
Kindia	D	933,770	30,157
Labé	L	805,609	24,144
Mamou	M	611,832	16,720
Nzérékoré	N	1,348,981	45,017
ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. Population: 1998 estimate

 

Before ~1988, the prefectures were grouped into these "supra-regions":

English name	French name	Population	Area(km.²)	Capital
Conakry	Conakry	705,280	308	Conakry
Lower Guinea	Guinée-Maritime	1,147,301	43,980	Kindia
Fouta Djallon	Moyenne-Guinée	1,595,007	51,710	Labé
Upper Guinea	Haute-Guinée	1,086,679	92,535	Kankan
Forest-Guinea	Guinée-Forestière	1,246,747	57,324	Nzérékoré
Totals		5,781,014	245,857
Population: 1983 census

Origins of names: 

Conakry: local word konakri: across the water

Change history: 

1. 1904: Îles de Los transferred from Sierra Leone to French Guinea by cession.
2. ~1980: Name of Youkoukoun region changed to Koundara.
3. ~1985: Coyah region split from Dubréka; Koubia and Lélouma regions split from Labé; Lola region split from Nzérékoré; Mandiana region formed from parts of Kankan and Siguiri.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Conakry: Conacri (Portuguese); Konakry (obsolete)
2. Guéckédou: Guékédou (variant)
3. Koundara: Youkoukoun, Youkounkoun (obsolete)