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Updates: 

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter II-3 is dated 2011-12-15. Update 3 to Geopolitical Entities and Codes, the successor to FIPS PUB 10-4, was issued on 2011-02-28. Both of these updates provide codes for the new municipalities.

The Real Academia Española, which is the arbiter of the Spanish language, has promulgated new spelling rules as of November 2010. In domesticated words, the letter Q is no longer to be used except before U. One consequence is that the correct spelling of this country in Spanish will be Catar, replacing Qatar. It's possible that many writers of Spanish will refuse to comply, or will only gradually catch on to the new style.

FIPS Publication Change Notice No. 9, affecting FIPS PUB 10-4, was issued on 2004-10-01. It showed Umm Sa'id municipality, formed from parts of Al Wakrah and Jariyan al Batnah.

Country overview: 

Short name	QATAR
ISO code	QA
FIPS code	QA
Language	Arabic (ar)
Time zone	+3
Capital	Doha

 

The emirate of Qatar became a British protectorate on 1916-11-03. It became fully independent on 1971-09-03.

Other names of country: 

1. Arabic: Dawlat Qatar (formal)
2. Danish: Qatar
3. Dutch: Qatar, Staat Qatar (formal)
4. English: State of Qatar (formal), Katar (obsolete)
5. Finnish: Qatar
6. French: Qatar m
7. German: Katar n
8. Icelandic: Katar
9. Italian: Qatar m
10. Norwegian: Qatar, Staten Qatar (formal)
11. Portuguese: Qatar, Catar (Brazil), Estado m do Qatar m (formal)
12. Russian: Государство Катар (formal)
13. Spanish: Catar, Qatar (variant), Estado m de Catar (formal)
14. Swedish: Qatar
15. Turkish: Katar, Katar Devleti (formal)

Primary subdivisions: 

Qatar is divided into seven baladiyat (sing: baladiyah; municipalities).

Municipality	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)
Ad Dawhah	QA.DA	DA	QA01	796,947	234	90
Al Daayen	QA.DY	ZA	QA13	43,176	236	91
Al Khawr	QA.KR	KH	QA04	193,983	1,551	599
Al Wakrah	QA.WA	WA	QA10	141,222	2,520	973
Ar Rayyan	QA.RY	RA	QA06	455,623	5,818	2,246
Madinat ach Shamal	QA.MS	MS	QA08	7,975	902	348
Umm Salal	QA.SL	US	QA09	60,509	310	120
7 municipalities				1,699,435	11,571	4,467
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO standard 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from "Geopolitical Entities and Codes". Population: 2010-04-21 census.

Territorial extent: 

Qatar occupies a peninsula in the Persian Gulf, and neighboring reefs and islets.

The UN LOCODE page  for Qatar 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: 

Ad-Dawhah: Arabic ad-dawha: the big tree

Change history: 

1. 1963: According to source [1], the first municipality was the Municipality of Qatar, created under Law No. 11. Later in the same year, its name was changed to Municipality of Doha by Law No. 15.
2. 1972-07-17: Ar Rayyan, Al Wakrah, Al Khawr and Dhekra, Ash Shamal, and Umm Salal municipalities created under Resolution No.11.
3. 1997: Umm Sa'id municipality formed from parts of Al Wakrah (former HASC code QA.WA, FIPS code QA05) and Jariyan al Batnah (QA.JB, QA07). At that time, the municipalities were as shown in this table:

Municipality	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Ad Dawhah	QA.DA	DA	QA01	339,847	132	51	Doha
Al Ghuwariyah	QA.GH	GH	QA02	2,159	622	240	Al Ghuwayriyah
Al Jumaliyah	QA.JU	JU	QA03	10,303	2,565	990	Al Jumayliyah
Al Khawr	QA.KH	KH	QA04	31,547	996	385	Al Khawr
Al Wakrah	QA.AW	WA	QA10	31,441	1,114	430	Al Wakrah
Ar Rayyan	QA.RA	RA	QA06	272,860	889	343	Ar Rayyan
Jariyan al Batnah	QA.JR	JB	QA11	6,678	3,715	1,434	Umm Bab
Madinat ach Shamal	QA.MS	MS	QA08	4,915	901	348	Dukhan
Umm Sa'id	QA.UD		QA12	12,674			Umm Sa'id
Umm Salal	QA.US	US	QA09	31,605	493	190	Umm Silal'ait
10 municipalities				744,029	11,427	4,412
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4, a U.S. government standard. Population: 2004-03-16 census (source [2]). Area: Provided by Karem Abdalla (before Umm Sa'id split).

1. 2001-03-16: International Court of Justice ruled on territorial disputes between Bahrain and Qatar, awarding the Hawar Islands to Bahrain and the city of Zubarah and its environs to Qatar. Zubarah is on the mainland in Madinat ach Shamal municipality.
2. 2004: Al Daayen municipality created under Resolution No. 13. Judging from maps of the municipalities before and after this change, Al Daayen was formed from parts of Umm Salal and Al Khawr; at the same time, Al Ghuwariyah merged with Al Khawr; Al Jumaliyah merged with Ar Rayyan; and Jarayan al Batnah was split between Ar Rayyan and Al Wakrah.

Other names of subdivisions: 

There are various systems in use for transliterating from the Arabic to the Latin alphabet. The variant names listed here are just a sampling.

1. Ad Dawhah: Doha (variant)
2. Al Ghuwariyah: Al Ghuwayriyah
3. Al Jumaliyah: Al Gummayalah, Al Gummaylah, Al Jumaylīyah (variant)
4. Al Khawr: Al Khor, Al Khor and Al Thakhira, Al Khor and Dhekra (variant)
5. Ar Rayyan: Al Rayyan
6. Jariyan al Batnah: Jarayan al Batinah, Jarayān al Baţnah, Jarayan al Batnah, Jerian al Betna, Jeryan al Batn (variant)
7. Madinat ach Shamal: Al Shamal, Ash Shamāl (variant)
8. Umm Sa'id: Mesaieed (variant)
9. Umm Salal: Um Salal, Umm Ṣalāl, Umm Slal (variant)

Sources: 

1. [1] Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning  (retrieved 2008-11-28).
2. [2] 2004 census results from http://www.planning.gov.qa/Qatar-Census-2004/Flash/introduction.html (dead link, retrieved 2007-11-11).