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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 two new regions: NA-KE for Kavango East and NA-KW for Kavango West. Subsequently, on 2014-11-03, ISO officially issued codes for these two. It also changed the name of Caprivi to Zambezi. Now there is a perfect match between the two standards.

Sorin Cosoveanu located a set of files (source [23]) that show final results of the 2011 census, adjusted for the boundaries of 2013. At the regional level, the populations don't differ much from the provisional results.

Update 14 to Geopolitical Entities and Codes (formerly FIPS 10-4) is dated 2013-12-31. It assigns codes to the two new regions, Kavango East and Kavango West, and changes the names of Caprivi and Karas to Zambezi and //Karas.

The Delimitation Commission has proposed, and President Pohamba has enacted, a reorganization and renaming of regions, cities, and constituencies. The reorganization is described under the change history for 2013. The renamings are to remove some vestiges of colonialism. Caprivi region will be named Zambezi; Luderitz constituency and its chief town will be named ǃNamiǂNûs (the characters ǂ and ǃ represent clicks in the Khoisan languages); Schuckmannsburg will be named Luhonono; and Steinhausen constituency will be named Okarukombe. Those are said to be their precolonial names.

Country overview: 

Short name	NAMIBIA
ISO code	NA
FIPS code	WA
Language	English (en), Afrikaans (af)
Time zone	+1~
Capital	Windhoek

 

South-West Africa was a German protectorate at the beginning of the 20th century. After World War I, when Germany was divested of all its colonies, South-West Africa was made a Class C mandated territory of South Africa (Treaty of Versailles, effective 1920-12-17). After World War II, there was a prolonged dispute in which South Africa continued to exercise its mandate, while the United Nations ineffectually revoked it. The United Nations renamed it from South-West Africa to Namibia on 1968-06-12. Namibia finally gained its independence from South Africa on 1990-03-21.

Other names of country: 

1. Afrikaans: Suidwes-Afrika (obsolete)
2. Danish: Namibia
3. Dutch: Namibië, Republiek Namibië (formal)
4. English: Republic of Namibia (formal), South West Africa (obsolete)
5. Finnish: Namibia
6. French: Namibie f
7. German: Namibia n
8. Icelandic: Namibía
9. Italian: Namibia f
10. Norwegian: Namibia, Republikken Namibia (formal)
11. Portuguese: Namíbia, República f da Namíbia f (formal)
12. Russian: Республика Намибия (formal)
13. Spanish: Namibia, República f de Namibia f (formal)
14. Swedish: Namibia
15. Turkish: Namibya Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

after the Namib Desert, from a Nama word variously translated as bare place, vast arid plain, area where there is nothing.

Primary subdivisions: 

Namibia is divided into fourteen regions.

Region	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Pop-2011	Pop-2001	Pop-1991	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Erongo	NA.ER	ER	WA29	150,809	107,663	55,470	63,579	24,548	Swakopmund *
Hardap	NA.HA	HA	WA30	79,507	68,249	66,495	109,651	42,336	Mariental
Karas	NA.KA	KA	WA31	77,421	69,329	61,162	161,215	62,245	Keetmanshoop
Kavango East	NA.KE	KE	WA40	136,823	202,694	116,830	48,463	18,712	Rundu
Kavango West	NA.KW	KW	WA41	86,529					Nkurenkuru
Khomas	NA.KH	KH	WA21	342,141	250,262	167,071	37,007	14,288	Windhoek
Kunene	NA.KU	KU	WA32	86,856	68,735	64,017	115,293	44,515	Opuwo *
Ohangwena	NA.OW	OW	WA33	245,446	228,384	179,634	10,703	4,132	Eenhana *
Omaheke	NA.OH	OH	WA35	71,233	68,039	52,735	84,612	32,669	Gobabis
Omusati	NA.OS	OS	WA36	243,166	228,842	189,919	26,573	10,260	Uutapi *
Oshana	NA.ON	ON	WA37	176,674	161,916	134,884	8,653	3,341	Oshakati *
Oshikoto	NA.OT	OT	WA38	181,973	161,007	128,745	38,653	14,924	Omuthiyagwiipundi
Otjozondjupa	NA.OD	OD	WA39	143,903	135,384	102,536	105,185	40,612	Otjiwarongo *
Zambezi	NA.CA	CA	WA28	90,596	79,826	90,422	14,528	5,609	Katima Mulilo
14 regions				2,113,077	1,830,330	1,409,920	824,115	318,193
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. FIPS: codes from FIPS PUB 10-4, a U.S. government standard. Pop-2011: 2011-08-28 census (source [23])**. Pop-2001: 2001-08-27 census (source [15]). Pop-1991: 1991-10-21 census (source [5]). Area: Source [15].

 

Data for Kavango from before its split are shown under Kavango East.

* Capitals: Different sources disagree about the regional capitals. Sources [1]-[8] have varying information about the capitals of six regions. (Note: [8] is inherently less trustworthy, because the address for a regional governor is not necessarily the regional capital.) The following list shows sources that disagree with the capitals listed in the table. These are all different places, and not just alternate names of the same place. (The book "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries" shows the same capitals as source [1], which was my most trusted source for the data at the time it was written.) Source [21] has now turned up. The capitals shown in the table above are from that source, which I take to be official (as of 1992)—except for Oshikoto, which has a new capital as of 2013 according to source [22].

1. Erongo: [1] says Omaruru; [3] says both Omaruru and Swakopmund.
2. Kunene: [5] says Outjo; [3] says that Khorixas, Opuwo, and Outjo are all capitals.
3. Ohangwena: [4], [6], and [7] say Eenhana; [8] says Ondangwa; [5] says there is no capital, only villages.
4. Omusati: Oshakati ([5] and [7]), Ongandjera ([1]), Omusati ([3]), or Ombalantu ([8] and [4]). [6] uses the spelling Outapi. Oshakati is not even located in Omusati, although that doesn't prove anything.
5. Oshana: [5] says Etosha; [3] says Oshana.
6. Otjozondjupa: [5] says Okahandja; [1], [2], and [3] say Grootfontein.

** Population: Source [16] had populations for the fourteen regions, but they had low resolution and some of the digits are hard to read. Besides, it wasn't specifically stated that they came from the 2011 census. Source [19] had provisional census data for only thirteen regions, rounded to the nearest 100. Source [23] shows two out of fourteen pdf files that give populations adjusted for the territorial changes of 2013.

Further subdivisions:

See the Constituencies of Namibia page.

Territorial extent: 

In the division into districts prevailing before 1990, Hereroland East was split into two disjoint parts, separated by Gobabis. The Caprivi Strip (Afrikaans: Caprivi Zipfel), a panhandle in the northeast, consisted of Caprivi East and part of Kavango.

The UN LOCODE page  for Namibia 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: 

1. Bethanien: German for Bethany, after the Biblical city
2. Caprivi: for Count Leo von Caprivi (1831-1899), German chancellor
3. Damaraland: Land of the Damaras (Hottentot tribe)
4. Erongo: for Erongo Mountain
5. Hardap: for Hardap Dam
6. Karas: for Karas mountain range
7. Khomas: for Khomas Hochland mountain range
8. Kunene: for Kunene River
9. Omaheke: Herero word for Sandveld, a dry grassland with sandy soil
10. Oshana: = intermittent lake
11. Warmbad: = warm bath (hot springs)

Change history: 

Dr. Klaus Dierks has an extensive website on Namibian history. I found a number of details for the change history there.

1. 1903: According to source [11], the German protectorate had six regional offices: Gibeon, Keetmanshoop, Omaruru, Outjo, Swakopmund, and Windhoek.
2. 1909-02-07: Schuckmannsburg became first capital of Caprivi Strip.
3. 1910: Warmbad district split from Keetmanshoop.
4. 1915-05-01: Capital of the German protectorate of South-West Africa moved to Grootfontein.
5. 1922: Walvis Bay (then called Walfisch Bay) transferred from Cape Province of the Union of South Africa to Namibia (then called South West Africa).
6. 1936: Capital of Caprivi Strip moved to Katima Mulilo.
7. 1936: Capital of Kavango moved from Nkurenkuru to Rundu (called Runtu until the late 1940s).
8. 1948: South Africa reclaimed sovereignty over Walvis Bay.
9. This table appeared in source [20].

District	Population
Bethanie	3,233
Gibeon	11,802
Gobabis	19,347
Grootfontein	17,930
Karibib	7,142
Keetmanshoop	12,814
Lüderitz	6,073
Maltahöhe	3,960
Okahandja	7,506
Omaruru	9,403
Otjiwarongo	15,328
Outjo	10,443
Rehoboth	16,085
Swakopmund	3,922
Warmbad	7,470
Windhoek	23,492
Kaokaveld	184,090
Okavango
Ovamboland
19 districts	360,040
District: except the last three, which are native territories. Population: 1946 census

1. ~1977: Divisions of Namibia reorganized. Kavango and Bushmanland split from Grootfontein. Part of Outjo and all of Walvis Bay (a district adjacent to the enclave of Walvis Bay) annexed to Swakopmund. Damaraland formed from parts of Outjo, Omaruru, and Swakopmund. Owambo formed from Ovamboland and a small part of Grootfontein. Hereroland West formed from parts of Grootfontein, Gobabis, and Otjiwarongo. Part of Rehoboth transferred to Windhoek. Hereroland East split from Gobabis. Gibeon (capital Mariental) split into Mariental (with the addition of part of Rehoboth) and Namaland (with the addition of parts of Bethanien and Keetmanshoop). Other, lesser boundary adjustments occurred. Names of Kaokoveld and Warmbad changed to Kaokoland and Karasburg, respectively. The resulting divisions were:

District	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Typ	Capital	Became
Bethanien	WA01	2,911	18,004	6,951	m	Bethanien	Karas
Bushmanland	WA03	3,828	18,468	7,131	r	Tsumkwe	Otjozondjupa
Caprivi East	WA02	70,782	11,533	4,453	r	Katima Mulilo	Caprivi
Damaraland	WA22	32,938	46,560	17,977	r	Khorixas	Erongo, Kunene
Gobabis	WA04	27,844	41,447	16,003	m	Gobabis	Omaheke
Grootfontein	WA05	34,905	26,520	10,239	m	Grootfontein	Otjozondjupa
Hereroland East	WA23	25,255	51,949	20,058	r	Otjinene	Omaheke, Otjozondjupa
Hereroland West	WA24	18,824	16,500	6,371	r	Okakarara	Otjozondjupa
Kaokoland	WA06	26,313	58,190	22,467	r	Opuwo	Kunene
Karasburg	WA20	11,284	38,116	14,717	m	Karasburg	Karas
Karibib	WA07	12,147	13,230	5,108	m	Karibib	Erongo
Kavango	WA25	136,592	50,955	19,674	r	Rundu	Caprivi, Kavango
Keetmanshoop	WA08	20,804	38,302	14,788	m	Keetmanshoop	Karas
Lüderitz	WA09	17,475	53,063	20,488	m	Lüderitz	Karas
Maltahöhe	WA10	4,110	25,573	9,874	m	Maltahöhe	Hardap
Mariental	WA26	24,892	47,689	18,413	m	Mariental	Hardap
Namaland	WA27	16,234	21,120	8,154	r	Gibeon	Hardap, Karas
Okahandja	WA11	20,118	17,640	6,811	m	Okahandja	Otjozondjupa
Omaruru	WA12	7,446	8,425	3,253	m	Omaruru	Erongo
Otjiwarongo	WA13	23,326	20,550	7,934	m	Otjiwarongo	Otjozondjupa
Outjo	WA14	12,377	38,722	14,951	m	Outjo	Kunene
Owambo	WA15	615,057	51,800	20,000	r	Ondangwa	Ohangwena,Omusati,Oshana,Oshikoto
Rehoboth	WA16	34,372	14,182	5,476	r	Rehoboth	Hardap, Khomas
Swakopmund	WA17	20,757	44,697	17,258	m	Swakopmund	Erongo, Hardap, Kunene
Tsumeb	WA18	22,511	16,420	6,340	m	Tsumeb	Kunene, Oshikoto
Windhoek	WA21	158,609	33,489	12,930	m	Windhoek	Khomas
26 districts		1,401,711	824,268	318,253
FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Population: 1991-10-21 census Typ: Created as magisterial districts (m) or reserves (r) Became: Present-day region(s) occupying the same territory

1. 1992-08: Walvis Bay placed under joint Namibian and South African administration.
2. 1992-08-31: Regional Councils Act (Act 22 of 1992) promulgated. Under this act, Namibia reorganized from 26 districts to 13 regions. According to source [12], in 1990, the Delimitation Commission and the Cabinet proposed the region names Liambezi, Maroela, Mopane, and Waterberg. By the time the regions were actually created, those names had been changed to Caprivi, Ohangwena, Omusati, and Otjozondjupa, respectively.
3. 1994-03-01: Walvis Bay fully incorporated into Namibia as part of Erongo region.
4. 2013-08-08: Caprivi region renamed to Zambezi; Karas region renamed to ǃKaras; Kavango region (former ISO code NA-OK, FIPS WA34) split into Kavango East and Kavango West. Capital of Oshikoto moved from Tsumeb to Omuthiyagwiipundi (sometimes known as Omuthiya).

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Karas: ǃKaras, ǁKaras (variant)
2. Kavango: Okavango (variant)
3. Kunene: Kaokoland (obsolete)
4. Ohangwena: Ohanguena (variant)
5. Zambezi: Caprivi (obsolete); Liambezi (obsolete-variant)
6. (former divisions:)
7. Bushmanland: Boesmanland (Afrikaans)
8. Caprivi East: Caprivi Oos (Afrikaans); Caprivi, East Caprivi (variant)
9. Hereroland East: Hereroland Oos (Afrikaans)
10. Hereroland West: Hereroland Wes (Afrikaans)
11. Kaokoland: Kaokoveld (obsolete)
12. Karasburg: Warmbad (obsolete)
13. Outjo: Outjo/Kamanjab (variant)
14. Owambo: Owamboland (variant)
15. Walvis Bay: Walfisch Bay (obsolete); Walvisbaai (Afrikaans)
16. Windhoek: Windhuk (German)

Sources: 

1. [1] The Statesman's Yearbook 1997-98. St. Martin's Press, New York, 1997.
2. [2] The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World. 2001 edition.
3. [3] Payscope. Encyclopaedia Universalis, 1994.
4. [4] Encyclopaedia Universalis online map (http://www.universalis-edu.com/doc/atlas/Pages_Continents/P_ECRAN/Pages_PAYS/AT000135.htm, subscribers only, dead link, retrieved 2001-06-17).
5. [5] Johan van der Heyden's Global Statistics website (http://www.xist.org/cd/wa.htm, dead link, retrieved 2001-06-17).
6. [6] Werner Fröhlich's geonames.de  website (retrieved 2004-07-08).
7. [7] Association of Regional Councils in the Republic of Namibia (http://www.arc.org.na/, dead link, retrieved 2004-07-08) had areas for the thirteen regions. I have replaced them with figures from source [15].
8. [8] Address Directory For The Governmental Leaders of The World (http://www.flimflam.com/international/n.html, dead link, retrieved 2004-07-08).
9. [9] Xist.org website (http://www.stats.demon.nl/africa/namibia.htm, dead link, retrieved 1999-11-07) had 1991 population figures attributed to St. George's School, Windhoek. I revised the figures later according to source [5].
10. [10] Namibia Ministry of Health and Social Services (http://www.healthnet.org.na/grnmhss/htm/cen01preintro1.htm, dead link, retrieved 2004-07-08) had preliminary 2001 census results.
11. [11] Dr. Klaus Dierks's 1903 chronology  (retrieved 2004-07-08).
12. [12] Dr. Dierks's 1990–2000 chronology  (retrieved 2004-07-08).
13. [13] The New International Atlas. Rand McNally, Chicago, 1980.
14. [14] L'Évaluation des effectifs de la population des pays Africains, Tome I. Groupe de Démographie Africaine, Paris, 1982.
15. [15] Namibia 2001 Population and Housing Census  (retrieved 2013-08-31).
16. [16] "Caprivi is no more ." The Namibian (dated 2013-08-09, retrieved 2013-08-31).
17. [17] President's statement  on the reorganization (dated 2013-08-08, retrieved 2013-08-31).
18. [18] "Namibia now has 14 regions, 121 constituencies ", Radio Energy 100FM news site (dated 2013-08-08, retrieved 2013-08-31).
19. [19] Namibia 2011 Census Provisional Results . Government of Namibia (retrieved 2013-08-31).
20. [20] The Encyclopædia Britannica World Atlas, 1957 edition.
21. [21] Regional Council Act No. 22 of 1992  (retrieved 2013-08-31).
22. [22] Government Gazette of the Republic of Namibia No. 5261  (dated 2013-08-09, retrieved 2014-02-09).
23. [23] Kavango West Regional Tables Based on 4th Delimitation  and Kavango East Regional Tables Based on 4th Delimitation , both from 2011 Population and Housing Census. Namibia Statistics Agency (retrieved 2014-09-13).