Parishes of Montserrat

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Updates: 

"Geopolitical Entities, Names, and Codes, Edition 2" (GENC), a U.S. standard that's supposed to correspond to ISO 3166-2, was issued on 2014-03-31. It gives codes for the three parishes. They are similar to the FIPS codes shown below, except that they start with "MS-". The ISO online search still doesn't list any subdivisions of Montserrat.

Update 12 to Geopolitical Entities and Codes (formerly FIPS 10-4) is dated 2013-06-30. It says that the codes for Saint Georges and Saint Peter parishes were issued correctly, but were switched in a recompilation of the standard document. This update restores them to the correct codes, as shown below.

According to source [4], among others, a new capital is being built at Little Bay.

The latest version of the FIPS standard is called "Geopolitical Entities and Codes", published in 2010-04. For Montserrat, this document still shows three parishes, but they all have the same code: MH01. This doesn't make sense, and it's not mentioned in the appendix that describes changes made since 2008, so I think it's just a typo.

The Soufrière Hills volcano became active in 1995. The southern half of the island of Montserrat, including the capital Plymouth, was evacuated in stages. Plymouth was finally abandoned on 1996-04-03. It apparently remains the legal capital of Montserrat. Currently, Brades is the interim capital, the site of the government. The tourist office informs me that the parishes still exist, but Saint Peter is the only one currently inhabited. The report of the 2011 census (source [2]) shows the inhabited part of Saint Peter divided into 22 enumeration districts (census-defined), which are grouped into three "regions": Northern, Central, and South of Nantes River.

International standard ISO 3166-2 was published on December 15, 1998. It superseded ISO/DIS 3166-2 (draft international standard). For Montserrat, the draft standard showed three parishes with their codes. The final standard mentions that there are three parishes, but declines to specify names or codes. It says that these divisions are "not relevant".

Country overview: 

Short nameMONTSERRAT
ISO codeMS
FIPS codeMH
LanguageEnglish (en)
Time zone-4
CapitalPlymouth

 

At the beginning of the 20th century, Montserrat was one of five presidencies of the Leeward Islands, a British colony. On 1956-06-30, each presidency became a separate colony. From 1958-01-03 to 1962-05-24, Montserrat was the smallest member (in area) of the Federation of the West Indies.

Other names of country: 

  1. French: Montserrat
  2. Italian: Montserrat
  3. Portuguese: Monserrate
  4. Russian: Монтсеррат
  5. Spanish: Montserrat
  6. Turkish: Monserat

Origin of name: 

named for a similarly-shaped mountain in northern Spain

Primary subdivisions: 

Montserrat is divided into three parishes.

ParishHASCISOFIPSPopulationPop-1946
Saint AnthonyMS.SAAMH0106,040
Saint GeorgesMS.SGGMH0203,882
Saint PeterMS.SPPMH034,9224,411
Total4,92214,333

Territorial extent: 

Montserrat includes the island of Montserrat and a neighboring islet, Little Redonda.

The UN LOCODE page  for Montserrat 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.

Population history:

CensusPopulation
192112,120
194613,313
1960-04-0713,378
1970-04-0712,155
1980-05-1211,685
1991-05-1211,314
2001-05-124,491
2011-05-124,922

 

From sources [2] and [3]. Source [2] disagrees with source [1] about the 1946 population.

Sources: 

  1. [1] Demographic Yearbook , 7th Ed. Statistical Office of the United Nations, New York, 1955 (retrieved 2011-08-20).
  2. [2] Census 2011:  Montserrat at a Glance. Statistics Department, Montserrat, 2012 (retrieved 2012-10-28).
  3. [3] National Census Report Montserrat . Caricom Capacity Development Programme (CCDP), in collaboration with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA): 2000 Round of Population and Housing Census Data Analysis Sub-project (retrieved 2012-10-29).
  4. [4] Montserrat Development Corporation  (retrieved 2012-10-29).
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