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Updates: 

Sorin Cosoveanu furnished a spreadsheet with the results of the 2010 census.

Newsletter II-2, an update to the ISO 3166-2 standard, is dated 2010-06-30. It accommodates the changes made in 1998.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter I-8, published on 2007-04-17, has new ISO commune codes for Seychelles. They are shown in the table below, under the "Change history" heading. They replace codes from a draft version, ISO/DIS 2166-2, which had not been supported.

FIPS Publication Change Notice No. 10, affecting FIPS PUB 10-4, was issued on 2006-03-23. It drops one district, adds three new ones, and changes five. As explained under "Change history", this scenario doesn't quite seem to fit.

Country overview: 

Short name	SEYCHELLES
ISO code	SC
FIPS code	SE
Language	English (en), French (fr)
Time zone	+4
Capital	Victoria

 

Initially a dependency of Mauritius, Seychelles became a separate British colony in 1903-11. It gained independence on 1976-06-29.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Seychellerne
2. Dutch: Seychellen, Republiek Seychellen (formal)
3. English: Republic of Seychelles (formal)
4. Finnish: Seychellit
5. French: Seychelles fp
6. German: Seychellen fp, Seschellen fp (obsolete)
7. Icelandic: Seychelleseyjar
8. Italian: Seicelle fp, Seychelles
9. Norwegian: Seychellene, Republikken Seychellene (formal) (Bokmål), Seychellane, Republikken Seychellane (formal) (Nynorsk)
10. Portuguese: Seicheles, Seychelles, República f das Seychelles fp (formal)
11. Russian: Республика Сейшельские Острова (formal), Сейшелы (variant)
12. Spanish: Seychelles, República f de Seychelles fp (formal)
13. Swedish: Seychellerna
14. Turkish: Seyşeller (informal), Seyşel Adaları Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

named in honor of Marie Jean Hérault de Séchelles, French comptroller at the time of discovery

Primary subdivisions: 

Seychelles is divided into 25 districts, plus Outer Islands.

District	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Pop-2010	Pop-2002	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)
Anse aux Pins	SC.PI	01	SE01	3,850	3,564	3	1
Anse Boileau	SC.AB	02	SE02	4,011	4,036	12	5
Anse Étoile	SC.ET	03	SE03	4,717	4,394	6	2
Anse Royale	SC.RO	05	SE05	4,168	3,687	7	3
Au Cap	SC.LO	04	SE28	4,233	3,215	8	3
Baie Lazare	SC.BL	06	SE06	3,608	2,984	12	5
Baie Sainte Anne	SC.BS	07	SE07	4,876	3,736	29	11
Beau Vallon	SC.BV	08	SE08	4,120	3,816	5	2
Bel Air	SC.BA	09	SE09	2,857	2,919	5	2
Belombre	SC.BO	10	SE10	3,708	3,622	9	4
Cascade	SC.CA	11	SE11	4,267	3,448	11	4
English River	SC.RA	16	SE26	4,196	3,612	2	1
Glacis	SC.GL	12	SE12	3,833	3,592	7	3
Grand' Anse (Mahé)	SC.GM	13	SE24	3,106	2,594	16	6
Grand' Anse (Praslin)	SC.GP	14	SE14	3,727	3,367	22	9
La Digue and Inner Islands	SC.DI	15	SE25	3,045	2,711	36	14
Les Mamelles	SC.LM	24	SE29	2,667	2,391	2	1
Mont Buxton	SC.MB	17	SE17	3,089	3,110	1	0
Mont Fleuri	SC.MF	18	SE18	3,419	3,598	6	2
Outer Islands	SC.OI			758	485	208	80
Plaisance	SC.PL	19	SE19	3,781	3,414	3	1
Pointe La Rue	SC.PR	20	SE20	3,071	2,717	4	1
Port Glaud	SC.PG	21	SE27	2,572	2,184	27	10
Roche Caïman	SC.RC	25	SE30	3,232	2,673	2	1
Saint Louis	SC.SL	22	SE22	3,209	3,277	1	1
Takamaka	SC.TA	23	SE23	2,825	2,609	14	5
26 divisions				90,945	81,755	460	178
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Pop-2010: 2010-08-26 census (source [4]). Pop-2002: 2002-08-26 census.

Territorial extent: 

The main island of Seychelles is Mahé, where the capital, Victoria, is located. Within 100 km. of it are the Inner Islands: Praslin, Silhouette, La Digue, North, Curieuse, and some smaller islands. The Outer Islands are the Cosmoledo Group, including Aldabra, Assumption, and Astove; the Farquhar Group, including Cerf, Saint Pierre, and Providence; and other scattered islands like Desroches. All of the districts are on Mahé except for Baie Sainte Anne and Grand' Anse (Praslin) on Praslin, and La Digue on La Digue Island.

Recently, some islands off the coast at Victoria have been reclaimed from the sea. They haven't been assigned to any district yet. I included their area under Outer Islands.

The UN LOCODE page  for Seychelles 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. Mahé: named by Capt. Lazare Picault in honor of Bertrand-François Mahé, governor of Mauritius.
2. Praslin: named in 1768 for César Gabriel de Choiseul, duc de Praslin (1712-1785), then French Secretary of the Navy
3. Anse aux Pins: = pine cove (French); casuarina trees, resembling pines, grew there
4. Anse Boileau: after a Captain Boileau who landed there in 1790-06
5. Anse Étoile: = star cove (French)
6. Anse Royale: = royal cove (French), for the King's Garden there
7. Au Cap: = at the cape (French)
8. Baie Lazare: after Captain Lazare Picault, who landed there 1742-11-22
9. Baie Sainte Anne: after Sainte Anne Church, located there
10. Beau Vallon: = beautiful dale (French)
11. Bel Air: = fine air (French)
12. Belombre: = beautiful shade (French)
13. Cascade: after a waterfall in the Cascade River
14. Glacis: = slope (French)
15. Grand Anse: = great cove (French)
16. La Digue: = the dike (French)
17. Les Mamelles: = the breasts (French)
18. Mont Buxton: after Thomas Fowell Buxton (1786–1845)
19. Mont Fleuri: = blooming mount (French)
20. Plaisance: = pleasure spot (French)
21. Pointe La Rue: after Madame Larue, early settler
22. Roche Caïman: = caiman rock (French); the crocodilian species was found there
23. Saint Louis: after Saint Louis College, located there
24. Takamaka: for its takamaka trees

Change history: 

1. ~1938: Seychelles consisted of five districts: Central Mahé, North Mahé, Outlying Islands, Praslin, and South Mahé.
2. 1947: Source [1] gives the divisions shown for the 1947 census; source [3], the 1977 census. Victoria is included in Mahé North.

District-47	Pop-1947	District-77	Pop-1977	Area(km.²)
La Digue	1,412	La Digue	1,900	14
Mahé North	22,206	Mahé	54,600	154
Mahé South	5,991	Outer islands	700	215
All others	2,130	Praslin	4,300	45
Praslin	2,893	Silhouette	400	16
Total	34,632	Total	61,900	444
Pop-1947: 1947-12-21 census. Pop-1977: 1977-08-01 census. Area: of 1977 districts.

1. 1965-11-08: Islands of Aldabra, Desroches, and Farquhar taken from Seychelles to form part of the new British Indian Ocean Territory.
2. 1967: Seychelles divided into eight electoral areas: East Mahé, La Digue and Outlying Islands, North Mahé, Praslin, South Mahé, Victoria North, Victoria South, and West Mahé.
3. 1976-06-29: Aldabra, Desroches, and Farquhar Islands restored to Seychelles.
4. 1979: Seychelles divided into 23 districts, as shown in the table below. Apparently these districts didn't cover Inner Islands and Outer Islands.

District	HASC	ISO	FIPS
Anse aux Pins	SC.PI	01	SE01
Anse Boileau	SC.AB	02	SE02
Anse Étoile	SC.ET	03	SE03
Anse Louis	SC.LO	04	SE04
Anse Royale	SC.RO	05	SE05
Baie Lazare	SC.BL	06	SE06
Baie Sainte Anne	SC.BS	07	SE07
Beau Vallon	SC.BV	08	SE08
Bel Air	SC.BA	09	SE09
Bel Ombre	SC.BO	10	SE10
Cascade	SC.CA	11	SE11
Glacis	SC.GL	12	SE12
Grand' Anse (Mahé)	SC.GM	13	SE13
Grand' Anse (Praslin)	SC.GP	14	SE14
La Digue	SC.DI	15	SE15
La Rivière Anglaise	SC.RA	16	SE16
Mont Buxton	SC.MB	17	SE17
Mont Fleuri	SC.MF	18	SE18
Plaisance	SC.PL	19	SE19
Pointe la Rue	SC.PR	20	SE20
Port Glaud	SC.PG	21	SE21
Saint Louis	SC.SL	22	SE22
Takamaka	SC.TA	23	SE23
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4.

1. 1998: Anse Louis district renamed Au Cap, and new districts of Les Mamelles and Roche Caïman created. The Virtual Seychelles website says that all three districts were created on reclaimed land, but from the map it seems clear that Au Cap is the same area as the old Anse Louis. The FIPS code changes also seem to imply that Anse Louis district was partitioned into Au Cap, Les Mamelles, and Roche Caïman, but again the map doesn't support this interpretation.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Au Cap: Anse Louis (obsolete)
2. Bel Ombre: Belombre (variant)
3. English River: La Rivière Anglaise (French)
4. Outer Islands: Coralline Islands (variant)

Sources: 

1. [1] Demographic Yearbook , 7th Ed. Statistical Office of the United Nations, New York, 1955 (retrieved 2011-08-20).
2. [2] "Know the Seychelles", http://www.virtualseychelles.sc/pecu/pecu_districts.htm (dead link, retrieved 2007-04-20).
3. [3] Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th Edition, Chicago, 1984.
4. [4] Population and Housing Census 2010 Report . National Bureau of Statistics, Victoria, 2012 (retrieved 2013-02-09).