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Updates: 

I added the legal populations for 2010.

Country overview: 

Short name	MARTINIQUE
ISO code	MQ
FIPS code	MB
Language	French (fr)
Time zone	-4
Capital	Fort-de-France

 

Martinique was a French colony until 1946, when it became an overseas department, and thus in theory a peer of any of the European departments of France. In 1974, when French regions were established, it became a one-department region as well. Martinique has a NUTS code of FR92 (as a region, or FR920 as a department), a department code of 972, and postal codes of the form 972xx, all of which are extensions of the French system.

Other names of country: 

1. English: Department of Martinique (formal)
2. French: Martinique f
3. Icelandic: Martiník
4. Italian: Martinica
5. Norwegian: Martinique
6. Portuguese: Martinica
7. Russian: Мартиника
8. Spanish: Martinica f
9. Turkish: Martinik

Origin of name: 

named by Columbus, probably from native name Madinina: island of lush vegetation

Primary subdivisions: 

Martinique is divided into four arrondissements.

Name	HASC	INSEE	Pop-2010	Pop-1999	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)
Fort-de-France	MQ.FF	972 1	166,885	166,238	171	66
Marin	MQ.MA	972 3	123,479	106,771	409	158
Saint-Pierre	MQ.SP	972 4	24,056	23,436	210	81
Trinité	MQ.TR	972 2	86,115	84,880	338	130
4 arrondissements			400,535	381,325	1,128	436
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. INSEE: Territory codes from French national statistics agency. Pop-2010: 2010-01-01 legal population (source [1]). Pop-1999: 1999-03 census (source [2]). Capitals have the same name as their arrondissements.

Further subdivisions:

See the Communes of Martinique page.

The arrondissements are subdivided into communes.

Territorial extent: 

Martinique includes the island of Martinique and a few adjacent islets, such as Îlet Ramville, Îlet Long, and Îlet Cabri.

The UN LOCODE page  for Martinique 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: 

Fort-de-France: originally Fort Royal, name changed for patriotic reasons after the French Revolution

Change history: 

1. 1946-03-19: Martinique became a département d'outre-mer (overseas department) of France. It had one arrondissement, Fort-de-France.
2. 1965-09-15: Trinité arrondissement split from Fort-de-France.
3. 1974-04-26: Marin arrondissement split from Fort-de-France.
4. 1973-03-02: Martinique became an overseas region of France, also remaining an overseas department.
5. 1995-05: Saint-Pierre arrondissement created (probably split from Fort-de-France).

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Marin: Le Marin (variant)
2. Trinité: La Trinité (variant)

Sources: 

1. [1] Populations légales ... . Insee (retrieved 2013-05-04).
2. [2] l'Atlas français 2001.