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Updates: 

Guatemala announced on 2006-04-19 that it would be going on daylight saving time from April 29 to September 30 that year. The experiment was abandoned the following year.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-2 was published on 2002-05-21. For Guatemala, the only change is in the spelling of Quetzaltenango. According to "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries", the spelling was changed from Quezaltenango to Quetzaltenango in about 1988. ISO has now caught up with this change.

Guatemala took a new census, starting on 1994-04-17. The data by department are shown in the table.

Country overview: 

Short name	GUATEMALA
ISO code	GT
FIPS code	GT
Language	Spanish (es)
Time zone	-6
Capital	Guatemala City

 

Guatemala has been an independent country for the whole of the 20th century. It has also asserted a claim to possession of Belize (formerly called British Honduras) during the entire period.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Guatemala
2. Dutch: Guatemala, Republiek Guatemala (formal)
3. English: Republic of Guatemala (formal)
4. Finnish: Guatemala
5. French: Guatemala m
6. German: Guatemala n
7. Icelandic: Gvatemala
8. Italian: Guatemala m
9. Norwegian: Guatemala, Republikken Guatemala (formal)
10. Portuguese: Guatemala f, República f da Guatemala f (formal)
11. Spanish: Guatemala, República f de Guatemala (formal)
12. Swedish: Guatemala

Origin of name: 

Theory 1: Aztec quauhtemallan: rotten tree; theory 2: Mayan guhatezmalha: mountain of vomiting water

Primary subdivisions: 

Guatemala is divided into 22 departamentos (departments).

Department	HASC	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Alta Verapaz	GT.AV	GT01	543,777	8,686	3,354	Cobán
Baja Verapaz	GT.BV	GT02	155,480	3,124	1,206	Salamá
Chimaltenango	GT.CM	GT03	314,813	1,979	764	Chimaltenango
Chiquimula	GT.CQ	GT04	230,767	2,376	917	Chiquimula
El Progreso	GT.PR	GT05	108,400	1,922	742	Guastatoya
Escuintla	GT.ES	GT06	386,534	4,384	1,693	Escuintla
Guatemala	GT.GU	GT07	1,813,825	2,126	821	Guatemala City
Huehuetenango	GT.HU	GT08	634,374	7,400	2,857	Huehuetenango
Izabal	GT.IZ	GT09	253,153	9,038	3,490	Puerto Barrios
Jalapa	GT.JA	GT10	196,940	2,063	797	Jalapa
Jutiapa	GT.JU	GT11	307,491	3,219	1,243	Jutiapa
Petén	GT.PE	GT12	224,884	35,854	13,843	Flores
Quetzaltenango	GT.QZ	GT13	503,857	1,951	753	Quetzaltenango
Quiché	GT.QC	GT14	437,669	8,378	3,235	Santa Cruz del Quiché
Retalhuleu	GT.RE	GT15	188,764	1,856	717	Retalhuleu
Sacatepéquez	GT.SA	GT16	180,647	465	180	Antigua Guatemala
San Marcos	GT.SM	GT17	645,418	3,791	1,464	San Marcos
Santa Rosa	GT.SR	GT18	246,698	2,955	1,141	Cuilapa
Sololá	GT.SO	GT19	222,094	1,061	410	Sololá
Suchitepéquez	GT.SU	GT20	307,187	2,510	969	Mazatenango
Totonicapán	GT.TO	GT21	272,094	1,061	410	Totonicapán
Zacapa	GT.ZA	GT22	157,008	2,690	1,039	Zacapa
22 departments			8,331,874	108,889	42,045
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. If periods are replaced by hyphens, these are the same as the state codes from ISO standard 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Population: 1994-04-17 census.

Postal codes: 

Guatemala uses five-digit postal codes. A sampling of them suggests that the first two digits may represent the department (01 = Guatemala, 09 = Quetzaltenango, 13 = Huehuetenango, etc.).

Further subdivisions:

See the Municipalities of Guatemala page.

The departments are further subdivided into municipios (municipalities).

Origins of names: 

1. El Progreso: Spanish for progress.
2. Guatemala: same as the country name.
3. Huehuetenango: Nahuatl for city of the ancients.

Change history: 

1. 1908: El Progreso formed from parts of Baja Verapaz, Jalapa, Zacapa, and Guatemala.
2. ~1962: Amatitlán merged with Guatemala.
3. ~1988: Name of Quezaltenango department changed to Quetzaltenango (perhaps to make the spelling more phonetic).
4. ~1991: Name of capital of El Progreso department changed from El Progreso to Guastatoya, restoring it to its name from before 1920.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Petén: El Petén (variant)
2. Quetzaltenango: Quezaltenango (obsolete)
3. Quiché: El Quiché (variant)

Population history:

Department	1898	1940	1964-04-18	1973-03-26	1983	1994-04-17
Alta Verapaz	110,936	282,562	259,873	279,880	386,636	543,777
Amatitlán	35,954
Baja Verapaz	50,874	96,182	95,663	106,440	155,083	155,480
Chimaltenango	61,013	177,123	163,753	197,780	272,685	314,813
Chiquimula	66,823	144,011	151,214	161,980	272,685	230,767
El Progreso		65,302	66,734	72,840	102,832	108,400
Escuintla	31,302	176,280	269,813	275,600	518,525	386,534
Guatemala	143,581	319,197	813,696	1,114,120	1,870,277	1,813,825
Huehuetenango	136,114	176,480	286,965	384,400	539,971	634,374
Izabal	5,067	83,153	114,404	169,960	303,123	253,153
Jalapa	35,954	124,855	97,996	119,960	165,763	196,940
Jutiapa	50,058	200,416	199,053	234,580	335,408	307,491
Petén	8,604	11,475	26,720	67,020	107,691	224,884
Quetzaltenango	107,324	233,655	268,962	308,880	457,498	503,857
Quiché	90,300	158,662	247,775	303,880	440,157	437,669
Retalhuleu	25,009	69,974	122,829	124,580	213,673	188,764
Sacatepéquez	41,375	83,024	80,479	99,160	141,336	180,647
San Marcos	93,181	204,208	332,303	391,360	564,595	645,418
Santa Rosa	38,950	169,774	155,488	179,540	254,275	246,698
Sololá	85,591	86,625	108,815	128,120	176,192	222,094
Suchitepéquez	36,849	182,162	186,299	238,000	312,340	307,187
Totonicapán	160,942	92,292	139,636	168,700	240,340	272,094
Zacapa	44,216	145,797	97,976	105,100	151,341	157,008
Totals	1,460,017	3,283,209	4,286,446	5,231,880	7,982,426	8,331,874