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Updates: 

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-9 was published on 2007-11-28. It drops West Kurdufan from the list of states. All other codes remain unchanged.

Sorin Cosoveanu and Lucas Klausner have written me about changes in Sudan. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Khartoum government and the southern rebels was signed on 2005-01-09. On 2005-07-09, a new Constitution for Sudan took effect, marking the beginning of a six-year Interim Period of autonomy for Southern Sudan. On 2005-08-16, President Bashir decreed that South Kordufan would revert to its boundaries as of 1974. This was done by splitting West Kordufan into two parts. Judging from some maps on the UN Sudan Information Gateway , its districts of En Nuhud and Ghebeish merged with North Kordufan, while oil-rich Abyei, Es Salam, and Lagawa merged with South Kordufan. As part of the agreement, the capital of South Kordufan will alternate between Kadugli and the former capital of West Kordufan, Al-Fula. Abyei was to hold a referendum to determine its future. For more background, see this UNMIS CPA Monitor  page and this Wikipedia article .

On 2005-04-01, Bahr-al-Jabal state changed its name to Central Equatoria. A UNHCR report of 2006-06-29 says that the national government plans to make Yei the capital of Central Equatoria, and Juba the government headquarters for all of South Sudan. A story in the Juba Post for 2006-07-27 says that the state government is opposed to the move.

Country overview: 

Short name	SUDAN
ISO code	SD
FIPS code	SU
Language	Arabic (ar)
Time zone	+3
Capital	Khartoum

 

From just before 1900 until its independence on 1956-01-01, Sudan was a condominium of Egypt and the United Kingdom.

Other names of country: 

1. Arabic: Jamhuryat es-Sudan (formal)
2. Danish: Sudan
3. Dutch: Sudan, Republiek Sudan (formal)
4. English: Republic of the Sudan (formal), Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (obsolete)
5. Finnish: Sudan
6. French: Soudan m
7. German: Sudan m
8. Icelandic: Súdan
9. Italian: Sudan m
10. Norwegian: Sudan, Republikken Sudan (formal)
11. Portuguese: Sudão, República f do Sudão m (formal)
12. Spanish: Sudán, República f del Sudán m (formal)
13. Swedish: Sudan

Origin of name: 

from a native word for black (people)

Primary subdivisions: 

Sudan is divided into 25 wilayat (states).

State	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital	Region
Blue Nile	SD.BN	24	SU42	45,844	17,700	Al-Damazin	Blue Nile
Central Equatoria	SD.BG	17	SU44	22,956	8,863	Juba	Equatoria
East Equatoria	SD.EE	19	SU57	82,542	31,870	Kapoita	Equatoria
Gedarif	SD.GD	06	SU39	75,263	29,059	Gedarif	Kassala
Gezira	SD.GZ	07	SU38	23,373	9,024	Wad Medani	Blue Nile
Jungoli	SD.JG	20	SU51	122,479	47,289	Bor	Upper Nile
Kassala	SD.KA	05	SU52	36,710	14,174	Kassala	Kassala
Khartoum	SD.KH	03	SU29	22,142	8,549	Khartoum	Khartoum
Lakes	SD.EB	18	SU37	40,235	15,535	Rumbek	Bahr el Ghazal
North Bahr-al-Ghazal	SD.NB	15	SU54	33,558	12,957	Awil	Bahr el Ghazal
North Darfur	SD.ND	02	SU55	296,420	114,448	Al-Fashir	Darfur
Northern	SD.NO	01	SU43	348,765	134,659	Dongula	Northern
North Kordufan	SD.KN	09	SU56	221,900	85,676	Al-Obeid	Kordofan
Red Sea	SD.RS	26	SU36	218,887	84,513	Port Sudan	Kassala
River Nile	SD.RN	04	SU53	122,123	47,152	Al-Damar	Northern
Sennar	SD.SI	25	SU58	37,844	14,612	Sinja	Blue Nile
South Darfur	SD.SD	11	SU49	127,300	49,151	Nyala	Darfur
South Kordufan	SD.KS	13	SU50	158,355	61,141	Kadugli, Al-Fula	Kordofan
Unity	SD.WH	22	SU40	35,956	13,883	Bantio	Upper Nile
Upper Nile	SD.UN	23	SU35	77,773	30,028	Malakal	Upper Nile
Warap	SD.WR	21	SU59	31,027	11,980	Warap	Bahr el Ghazal
West Bahr-al-Ghazal	SD.WB	14	SU46	93,900	36,255	Wau	Bahr el Ghazal
West Darfur	SD.WD	12	SU47	79,460	30,680	Geneina	Darfur
West Equatoria	SD.WE	16	SU45	79,319	30,625	Yambio	Equatoria
White Nile	SD.WN	08	SU41	30,411	11,742	Rabak	Blue Nile
25 states				2,460,432	949,978
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. For full identification in a global context, prefix "SD-" to the code (ex: SD-22 represents Unity). FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Area: Source: various Sudanese embassy Web pages. Capital: Many sources say that the capital of Sennar is Sennar. Region: Region containing this state before 1994.

Postal codes: 

The Universal Postal Union document says that Sudan uses five-digit postal codes. (An earlier version of the document said they were four digits; quite possibly a new system was introduced in between.)

Further subdivisions:

The states are subdivided into districts.

Territorial extent: 

Red Sea includes Sudan's Red Sea islands, such as Mukawwar and the Suakin Archipelago.

The administrative boundary between Sudan and Egypt deviates from the legal boundary. There is a small region in Sudan, south of 22°, administered by Egypt, and a larger triangle in Egypt, north of the parallel, administered by Sudan (in Red Sea state). Similarly, there is a triangle adjacent to the Kenya border that is administered by Kenya but part of Sudan (Eastern Equatoria state).

Origins of names: 

1. Bahr el Ghazal: Arabic "river of the gazelles"
2. Darfur: Arabic dar fur: home of the Fur (ethnic name)
3. Equatoria: area closest to the Equator, although nowhere farther south than 3° N. latitude
4. Gezira: Arabic al-gazira: the island, referring to area between the White Nile and Blue Nile
5. Khartoum: means "the snout," from shape of land where the White and Blue Nile meet

Change history: 

1. 1919: Anglo-Egyptian Sudan ceded a roughly triangular area in the northwest to Libya. The division of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan into eight mudiriyas (provinces) was poorly defined at first, but by the start of World War II, they were well established.
2. 1948: Bahr el Ghazal province split from Equatoria. The division of Sudan into provinces was now:

Province	FIPS	F-84	Reg	Population	Area(km.²)	Capital
Bahr el Ghazal	SU06	SU32	S	991,022	201,048	Waw
Blue Nile	SU04	SU27	N	2,069,646	139,124	Wad Medani
Darfur	SU07	SU33	N	1,328,765	509,075	El Fashir
Equatoria	SU02	SU28	S	903,503	198,121	Juba
Kassala	SU08	SU31	N	941,039	334,331	Kassala
Khartoum	SU03	SU29	N	504,923	28,187	Khartoum
Kordofan	SU09	SU34	N	1,761,968	380,552	El Obeid
Northern	SU05	SU30	N	873,059	476,405	Ed Damer
Upper Nile	SU01	SU26	S	888,611	238,976	Malakal
9 provinces				10,262,536	2,505,819
FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-1, a U.S. government standard. F-84: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-3 (1984). Reg: Northern (N) or Southern (S) region (set up in 1972). Population: 1956 census.

1. 1972-03-27: Southern region (capital Juba) established under the Addis Ababa agreement.
2. 1973-01-01: Red Sea province split from Kassala.
3. 1974-07-01: Darfur province divided into Northern Darfur and Southern Darfur; El Gezira and White Nile provinces split from Blue Nile; Kordofan province divided into Northern Kordofan and Southern Kordofan; Nile province created from parts of Kassala and Northern.
4. ~1976: El Buheyrat province split from Bahr el Ghazal; Equatoria province divided into Eastern Equatoria and Western Equatoria; Junglei province split from Upper Nile. This was the resulting division:

Province	Population	Area(km.)	Capital
Bahr el Ghazal	1,492,597	134,576	Waw
Blue Nile	1,056,313	62,135	Ed Damazin
Eastern Equatoria	359,056	119,237	Juba
El Buheyrat	772,913	66,318	Rumbek
El Gezira	2,023,094	35,057	Wad Medani
Junglei	797,251	121,644	Bor
Kassala	1,512,335	114,154	Kassala
Khartoum	1,802,299	28,165	Khartoum
Nile	649,633	127,343	Ed Damer
Northern	433,391	348,697	Dongola
Northern Darfur	1,327,947	346,155	El Fashir
Northern Kordofan	1,805,769	221,900	El Obeid
Red Sea	695,874	21,990	Port Sudan
Southern Darfur	1,765,752	162,529	Nyala
Southern Kordofan	1,287,525	158,355	Kadogli
Upper Nile	802,354	117,148	Malakal
Western Equatoria	1,047,125	78,732	Yambio
White Nile	933,136	41,825	Ed Dueim
18 provinces	20,564,364	2,305,960
Population: 1983 census.

1. 1991: Sudan adopted a federal system with nine states, matching the nine provinces that had existed from 1948 to 1973. FIPS apparently assigned new codes (SU10-SU25, which I haven't been able to find a source for) to the provinces as they were created or subdivided from 1973 onward. When the states appeared, FIPS dropped the entire set of codes and assigned new codes to the states (SU26-SU34, as shown in the F-84 column above). The states were subdivided into 66 provinces, and then into 281 local government areas.
2. 1994-02-14: Sudan reorganized into twenty-six wilayaat (states). Each one was a subset of one of the former nine states. Most, but not all, states were a subset of one of the eighteen provinces.
3. 2005-04-01: Name of Bahr-al-Jabal state changed to Central Equatoria.
4. 2005-08-16: West Kordufan split into two parts. The northern part merged with North Kordufan, and the southern part with South Kordufan. The capital of South Kordufan will alternate between Kadugli and the former capital of West Kordufan, Al-Fula. West Kordufan's data before this change were: HASC code SD.WK; ISO code 10; FIPS code SU48; Area 111,373 km.². The areas of North and South Kordufan were respectively 185,302 and 79,470 km.² before this change, and their FIPS codes were SD.NK and SD.SK. In the table under Primary subdivisions, I have reverted their areas to what they were in 1976, although the total is 4,110 km.² higher than it should be.

Other names of subdivisions: 

The article al is sometimes transliterated el. Before certain consonants, it is usually assimilated, as in Ash Shamaliyah (instead of Al Shamaliyah).

Provinces:

1. Blue Nile: Al Wusţá, Al Awsat (Arabic-variant); An Nil al Azraq (Arabic); Central (variant)
2. Darfur: Darfour (French); Dārfūr (Arabic)
3. Equatoria: Al Istiwā'ī, Al Istiwā'īyah (Arabic); Equatória (Portuguese)
4. Kassala: Ash Sharqī, Ash Sharqīyah (Arabic-variant); Eastern (variant)
5. Khartoum: Al Kharţūm, Al Khurţūm (Arabic); Cartum (Portuguese); Jartum (Spanish); Khartum (German, Italian, Norwegian)
6. Kordofan: Cordofão, Kordofam (Portuguese); Kòrdofan (Italian); Kurdufān (Arabic)
7. Northern: Ash Shamālī, Ash Shamālīyah (Arabic); Nord (French)
8. Upper Nile: A`ālī an Nīl (Arabic); Alto Nilo (Portuguese)

States:

1. Blue Nile: An Nīl al Azraq (Arabic); Nil Bleu (French); Nilo Azul (Portuguese)
2. Central Equatoria: Bahr el Gabel, Bahr-al-Jabal (obsolete)
3. East Equatoria: Al Istiwā'īyah ash Sharqīyah, Sharq al Istiwā'īyah (Arabic); Équatoria oriental (French)
4. Gedarif: Al Qadarif, Gadarif, Gedaref, Gederaf (variant)
5. Gezira: Al Jazīrah, El Gezira, Gezeira (variant)
6. Jungoli: Jonglei, Jonglie, Jonqley, Junglei, Junqalī (variant); Jongley (French)
7. Kassala: Cassala (Portuguese); Kessala (variant)
8. Lakes: Al Buhairat, Al Buḥayrah, Buheirat, El Boheirat, El Buhayrat (variant); El Buheyrah (French)
9. North Bahr-al-Ghazal: North Bahr-al-Gazal, North Bahr el Ghazal (variant); Shamal Bahr al Ghazal (Arabic)
10. North Darfur: Dārfūr ash Shamālīyah, Shamāl Dārfūr (Arabic); Darfur septentrional (French)
11. North Kordufan: Kordofan septentrional (French); Kurdufān ash Shamālīyah, Shamāl Kurdufān (Arabic); North Kordofan (variant)
12. Red Sea: Al Baḥr al Aḥmar (Arabic); Mar Rojo (Spanish); Mar Rosso (Italian); Mar Vermelho (Portuguese); Mer Rouge (French); Röda havet (Swedish); Rødehavet (Norwegian); Rotes Meer (German)
13. River Nile: an Nīl, Nahr an Nīl (Arabic); Nil (French, German); Nile, Nile River (variant); Nilen (Norwegian, Swedish); Nilo (Italian, Portuguese)
14. Sennar: Sinnar (variant)
15. South Darfur: Dārfūr al Janūbīyah, Janūb Dārfūr (Arabic); Darfur méridional (French); Southern Darfur (variant)
16. South Kordufan: Janūb Kurdufān, Janub Kurdufun, Kurdufān al Janūbīyah (Arabic); Kordofan méridional (French); South Kordofan (variant)
17. Unity: Al-Wahdah, Wahda (variant)
18. Upper Nile: a`Ālī an Nīl (Arabic); Nil supérieur (French)
19. Warap: Warab, Warrab (variant)
20. West Bahr-al-Ghazal: Bahr al-Ghazāl al Gharbīyah, Gharb Bahr al-Ghazāl (Arabic); Bahr el-Ghazal occidental (French); Western Bahr el Ghazal (variant)
21. West Darfur: Dārfūr al Gharbīyah, Gharb Dārfūr (Arabic)
22. West Equatoria: Al Istiwā'īyah al Gharbīyah, Gharb al Istiwā'īyah (Arabic); Équatoria occidental (French)
23. West Kordufan: Gharb Kurdufān, Gharb Kurdufun, Kurdufān al Gharbīyah (Arabic); Western Kordofan (variant)
24. White Nile: An Baḥr al Abyad, An Nīl al-Abyad (Arabic); Nil Blanc (French); Nilo Branco (Portuguese)

Sources:

1. [1] Recensements Africains, 1^ere partie, Monographes Méthodologiques, suite. Groupe de Travail de Démographie Africaine, Paris, 1981.