Municipalities of Guam

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Updates: 

I added the population data from the 1950 and 2010 censuses.

Country overview: 

Short nameGUAM
ISO codeGU
FIPS codeGQ
LanguagesEnglish (en), Chamorro
Time zone+10
CapitalHagåtņa

 

Guam became an unincorporated territory of the United States as a result of the Spanish-American War in 1898. It still retains that status. It was occupied by Japan during World War II.

Other names of country: 

  1. English: Territory of Guam (formal)
  2. French: Guam m
  3. Icelandic: Gvam
  4. Italian: Guam
  5. Portuguese: Guam m
  6. Russian: Гуам
  7. Spanish: Guam
  8. Turkish: Guam

Origin of name: 

Possibly a corruption of Chamorro, ethnic name

Primary subdivisions: 

Guam is divided into 19 municipalities.

MunicipalityHASCPop-2010Pop-2000Pop-1990Area(km.˛)Area(mi.˛)
Agana HeightsGU.AH3,8083,9403,64631
AgatGU.AT4,9175,6564,9602610
AsanGU.AS2,1372,0902,070166
BarrigadaGU.BA8,8758,6528,846239
Chalan-Pago-OrdotGU.CP6,8225,9234,451166
DededoGU.DD44,94342,98031,7287830
HagåtņaGU.AN1,0511,1001,13931
InarajanGU.IN2,2733,0522,4694919
MangilaoGU.MA15,19113,31310,4832610
MerizoGU.ME1,8502,1631,742166
Mongmong-Toto-MaiteGU.MT6,8255,8455,84552
PitiGU.PI1,4541,6661,827187
Santa RitaGU.SR6,0847,50011,8574417
SinajanaGU.SJ2,5922,8532,65831
TalofofoGU.TF3,0503,2152,3104417
TamuningGU.TM19,68518,01216,673166
UmatacGU.UM782887897166
YigoGU.YG20,53919,47414,2139135
YonaGU.YN6,4806,4845,3385220
19 municipalities159,358154,805133,152545209

 

FIPS PUB 5-2 assigns Guam an alphabetic code of GU and a numeric code of 66. FIPS PUB 6-4, which ordinarily has three-digit codes for each of the second-level subdivisions of the United States, only lists one code in Guam: 010. When the FIPS 5-2 and 6-4 codes are concatenated, the result (66010) is a code that represents Guam as a county-equivalent unit.

Time zone: On 2000-12-23, the time zone for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands was officially named "Chamorro Standard Time". The abbreviation is "ChST". It corresponds to UTC+10 hours. Daylight saving time is not observed here.

Postal codes: 

Guam uses the United States system of ZIP codes. Its codes are in the range 96910 - 96932.

Territorial extent: 

Guam occupies a moderately large island, the southernmost in the Marianas group; and some adjacent islets. All of the municipalities lie mainly on Guam Island. In addition, Agat municipality includes Alutom, Anae, Bangi, and Facpi Islands; Merizo includes Agrigan and Cocos Islands; Piti includes Cabras Island; Santa Rita includes Neye and Udall Islands; and Tamuning includes Alupat Island.

The UN LOCODE page  for Guam 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.

Change history: 

The municipalities of Guam were first established in the 1920s. The original set of municipalities was as shown in this table, and on the map at source [1].

MunicipalityPopulationModern
Agana11,042Agana Heights, Barrigada, Chalan-Pago-Ordot, Dededo,
Hagåtņa, Mangilao, Mongmong-Toto-Maite,
Sinajana, Tamuning, Yigo
Agat887Agat, Santa Rita (part)
Asan559Asan
Inarajan1,176Inarajan, Talofofo
Merizo1,101Merizo, Umatac
Piti928Piti
Sumay1,209Santa Rita (part)
Yona489Yona
8 munic.18,509
  • Population: 1930 census.
  • Modern: Municipalities as of 2000
    occupying approximately the same territory.

 

Source [2] shows the municipalities and their populations in 1941. The areas in the table below were calculated by dividing the population by the density. Population data from source [3] are much different, but perhaps World War II accounts for the changes.

MunicipalityPop-1941Pop-1950Area(km.˛)Capital
Agaņa10,8618001Tamuning
Agat1,1264,68264Agat
Asan6393,09016Asan
Barrigada72411,53453Barrigada
Dededo1,5296,44168Dededo
Inarajan1,0871,49049Inarajan
Machanao37768458Fafalog
Merizo6691,08618Merizo
Piti1,1901,90220Piti
Sinajaņa1,1809,16930Sinajaņa
Sumay1,6796,71813Apra
Talofofo51291343Talofofo
Umatac44458022Umatac
Yigo3309,02274Yigo
Yoņa7201,38754Yoņa
15 munic.23,06759,498583
  • Pop-1941: 1941 estimate (source [2]).
  • Pop-1950: 1950 census (source [3]).
  • Capital: administrative seat, 1971.
  1. 1950-08-01: Guam Organic Act made Guam an unincorporated territory of the U.S.
  2. 1971: The municipalities of Guam were the same as above, except that Sumay was replaced by Apra and Agaņa was replaced by Tamuning. Agana was located in Tamuning municipality. Apra covered the same territory as Sumay in the table above. Agana municipality in 1930 was equivalent to Barrigada, Dededo, Machanao, Sinajana, Tamuning, and Yigo in 1971.
  3. 1998-04-08: Name of capital and its municipality changed from Agana to Hagåtņa.

Sources: 

  1. [1] Our Changing Island : A History of the Census in Guam. Lesson plan, offered by the Bureau of the Census website (retrieved 2001-05-25).
  2. [2] The NationMaster Statistical Data site has a map  which cites Thompson, Laura, Guam and its People: A Study of Culture Change and Colonial Education. San Francisco, 1941. (Retrieved 2008-01-29.)
  3. [3] Demographic Yearbook , 7th Ed. Statistical Office of the United Nations, New York, 1955 (retrieved 2011-08-20).
  4. [4] Census Bureau press release : "U.S. Census Bureau Releases 2010 Census Population Counts for Guam" (dated 2011-08-24, retrieved 2011-12-11).
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