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Updates: 

Update 18 to Geopolitical Entities and Codes (formerly FIPS 10-4) is dated 2014-12-31. It assigns the code SD-KW to West Kordofan province. It is supposed to track with ISO 3166-2. However, ISO issued the code SD-GK for West Kordofan on 2015-11-28. (In the same update, it changed the spelling of five other states.)

Update 9 to Geopolitical Entities and Codes (formerly FIPS 10-4) is dated 2012-09-01. It includes new codes for the two new states.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter II-3 is dated 2011-12-15. It removes the ten states that became South Sudan, and revokes the two-digit state codes, replacing them with two-letter codes. It also shows the two new states, Central Darfur (code SD-DC) and East Darfur (code SD-DE). ISO may have jumped the gun a bit. Most accounts agree that the states became official on 2012-01-10.

The U.N. Statistics Division has issued new three-digit codes for Sudan and South Sudan, and retired Sudan's former code. The ISO 3166 maintenance agency has issued two- and three-letter codes for South Sudan; Sudan's codes remain unchanged. The changes are shown in ISO 3166 update newsletter VI-10, dated 2011-08-09.

A referendum was held between 2011-01-09 and 2011-01-15 to determine whether the people of southern Sudan wanted to separate from the north. Secession won by a huge majority. The split became official on 2011-07-09. The situation in Abyei is unsettled, and that region's future will probably take longer to determine.

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.

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. In 2011, South Sudan split off following a referendum.

Other names of country: 

1. Arabic: Jamhuryat es-Sudan (formal)
2. Danish: Sudan
3. Dutch: Soedan, Republiek Soedan (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. Russian: Республика Судан (formal)
13. Spanish: Sudán, República f del Sudán m (formal)
14. Swedish: Sudan
15. Turkish: Sudan Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

from a native word for black (people)

Primary subdivisions: 

Sudan is divided into 18 wilayat (states).

State	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital	Region
Blue Nile	SD.BN	NB	SU42	832,112	45,844	17,700	Al-Damazin	Blue Nile
Central Darfur	SD.CD	DC	SU61				Zalingei	Darfur
East Darfur	SD.ED	DE	SU60				Ed Daein	Darfur
Gedarif	SD.GD	GD	SU39	1,348,378	75,263	29,059	Gedarif	Kassala
Gezira	SD.GZ	GZ	SU38	3,575,280	23,373	9,024	Wad Medani	Blue Nile
Kassala	SD.KA	KA	SU52	1,789,806	36,710	14,174	Kassala	Kassala
Khartoum	SD.KH	KH	SU29	5,274,321	22,142	8,549	Khartoum	Khartoum
North Darfur	SD.ND	DN	SU55	2,113,626	296,420	114,448	Al-Fashir	Darfur
Northern	SD.NO	NO	SU43	699,065	348,765	134,659	Dongula	Northern
North Kordofan	SD.NK	KN	SU56	2,920,992	185,302	71,546	Al-Obeid	Kordofan
Red Sea	SD.RS	RS	SU36	1,396,110	218,887	84,513	Port Sudan	Kassala
River Nile	SD.RN	NR	SU53	1,120,441	122,123	47,152	Al-Damar	Northern
Sennar	SD.SI	SI	SU58	1,285,058	37,844	14,612	Sinja	Blue Nile
South Darfur	SD.SF	DS	SU49	4,093,594	127,300	49,151	Nyala	Darfur
South Kordofan	SD.SK	KS	SU50	1,406,404	79,470	30,684	Kadugli	Kordofan
West Darfur	SD.WF	DW	SU47	1,308,225	79,460	30,680	Geneina	Darfur
West Kordofan	SD.WK	GK	SU62		111,373	43,001	Al-Fula	Kordofan
White Nile	SD.WN	NW	SU41	1,730,588	30,411	11,742	Rabak	Blue Nile
18 states				30,894,000	1,844,797	712,280
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-SI represents Sennar). FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Population: 2008-04-22 census (source [3]). 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:

See the Districts of Sudan page.

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).

The UN LOCODE page  for Sudan 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. Darfur: Arabic dar fur: home of the Fur (ethnic name)
2. Gezira: Arabic al-gazira: the island, referring to area between the White Nile and Blue Nile
3. 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 Kordofan split into two parts. The northern part merged with North Kordofan, and the southern part with South Kordofan. Judging from maps at source [4], the northern part consisted of En Nuhud and Ghebeish districts; the southern part, Abyei, Es Salam, and Lagawa. As part of the agreement, the capital of South Kordofan alternated between Kadugli and the former capital of West Kordofan, Al-Fula. West Kordofan'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 Kordofan were respectively 185,302 and 79,470 km.² before this change, and their HASC codes were SD.NK and SD.SK. In the table below, I have reverted their areas to what they were in 1976, although the total is 4,110 km.² higher than it should be. Oil-rich Abyei was to hold a referendum to determine its future status.

State	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital	Region
Blue Nile	SD.BN	24	SU42	832,112	45,844	17,700	Al-Damazin	Blue Nile
Central Equatoria	SD.BG	17	SU44	1,103,557	22,956	8,863	Juba	Equatoria
East Equatoria	SD.EE	19	SU57	906,161	82,542	31,870	Kapoita	Equatoria
Gedarif	SD.GD	06	SU39	1,348,378	75,263	29,059	Gedarif	Kassala
Gezira	SD.GZ	07	SU38	3,575,280	23,373	9,024	Wad Medani	Blue Nile
Jungoli	SD.JG	20	SU51	1,358,602	122,479	47,289	Bor	Upper Nile
Kassala	SD.KA	05	SU52	1,789,806	36,710	14,174	Kassala	Kassala
Khartoum	SD.KH	03	SU29	5,274,321	22,142	8,549	Khartoum	Khartoum
Lakes	SD.EB	18	SU37	695,730	40,235	15,535	Rumbek	Bahr el Ghazal
North Bahr-al-Ghazal	SD.NB	15	SU54	720,898	33,558	12,957	Awil	Bahr el Ghazal
North Darfur	SD.ND	02	SU55	2,113,626	296,420	114,448	Al-Fashir	Darfur
Northern	SD.NO	01	SU43	699,065	348,765	134,659	Dongula	Northern
North Kordofan	SD.KN	09	SU56	2,920,992	221,900	85,676	Al-Obeid	Kordofan
Red Sea	SD.RS	26	SU36	1,396,110	218,887	84,513	Port Sudan	Kassala
River Nile	SD.RN	04	SU53	1,120,441	122,123	47,152	Al-Damar	Northern
Sennar	SD.SI	25	SU58	1,285,058	37,844	14,612	Sinja	Blue Nile
South Darfur	SD.SD	11	SU49	4,093,594	127,300	49,151	Nyala	Darfur
South Kordofan	SD.KS	13	SU50	1,406,404	158,355	61,141	Kadugli, Al-Fula	Kordofan
Unity	SD.WH	22	SU40	585,801	35,956	13,883	Bantio	Upper Nile
Upper Nile	SD.UN	23	SU35	964,353	77,773	30,028	Malakal	Upper Nile
Warap	SD.WR	21	SU59	972,928	31,027	11,980	Warap	Bahr el Ghazal
West Bahr-al-Ghazal	SD.WB	14	SU46	333,431	93,900	36,255	Wau	Bahr el Ghazal
West Darfur	SD.WD	12	SU47	1,308,225	79,460	30,680	Geneina	Darfur
West Equatoria	SD.WE	16	SU45	619,029	79,319	30,625	Yambio	Equatoria
White Nile	SD.WN	08	SU41	1,730,588	30,411	11,742	Rabak	Blue Nile
25 states				39,154,490	2,464,542	951,565
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. Population: 2008-04-22 census (source [3]). 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.

1. ~2008-10: Capital of East Equatoria state moved from Kapoita to Torit.
2. ~2010: Capital of Warap state moved from Warap to Kuacjok.
3. 2011-07-09: South Sudan, consisting of Central Equatoria, East Equatoria, Jungoli, Lakes, North Bahr-al-Ghazal, Unity, Upper Nile, Warap, West Bahr-al-Ghazal, and West Equatoria states, split from Sudan.
4. 2012-01-10: Central Darfur state formed from parts of South Darfur (former HASC code SD.SD) and West Darfur (SD.WD); East Darfur state split from South Darfur. Note: Wikipedia's article on Central Darfur says that part of Central Darfur came from South Darfur, but I haven't found independent verification. Source [14] says that Central Darfur consists of the localities Azoum, Bndsi, Mukjar, Nertte, Om Dukhn, Rokero, Wadi Salih, and Zalingei. Of those, the ones I could find were all previously in West Darfur.
5. 2013-07-13: West Kordofan state restored as it was before 2005-08-16. The government announced the establishment of West Kordofan state on 2012-12-20 (source [15]). President al-Bashir issued decrees endorsing the status of the three Kordofan states and appointing governors for them on 2013-07-13 (source [16]). West Kordofan contains Abyei district, whose status is still undetermined. A referendum is supposed to be held for Abyei to choose to adhere to Sudan or South Sudan.

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 Darfur: Zalingei (Arabic)
3. East Darfur: Sharq Darfur (Arabic)
4. Gedarif: Al Qadarif, Gadarif, Gedaref, Gederaf (variant)
5. Gezira: Al Jazīrah, El Gezira, Gezeira (variant)
6. Kassala: Cassala (Portuguese); Kessala (variant)
7. North Darfur: Dārfūr ash Shamālīyah, Shamāl Dārfūr (Arabic); Darfur septentrional (French)
8. North Kordofan: Kordofan septentrional (French); Kurdufān ash Shamālīyah, Shamāl Kurdufān (Arabic); North Kordufan (variant)
9. 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)
10. River Nile: an Nīl, Nahr an Nīl (Arabic); Nil (French, German); Nile, Nile River (variant); Nilen (Norwegian, Swedish); Nilo (Italian, Portuguese)
11. Sennar: Sinnar (variant)
12. South Darfur: Dārfūr al Janūbīyah, Janūb Dārfūr (Arabic); Darfur méridional (French); Southern Darfur (variant)
13. South Kordofan: Janūb Kurdufān, Janub Kurdufun, Kurdufān al Janūbīyah (Arabic); Kordofan méridional (French); South Kordufan (variant)
14. West Darfur: Dārfūr al Gharbīyah, Gharb Dārfūr (Arabic)
15. West Kordofan: Gharb Kurdufān, Gharb Kurdufun, Kurdufān al Gharbīyah (Arabic); Western Kordufan (variant)
16. White Nile: An Baḥr al Abyad, An Nīl al-Abyad (Arabic); Nil Blanc (French); Nilo Branco (Portuguese)

Population history:

Region	1956-09-02	1973-04-03	1983-02-01	1993-04-15	2008-04-22
Bahr el Ghazal	991,022	1,322,000	2,271,000	1,913,000	2,722,987
Blue Nile	2,069,646	3,623,000	4,027,000	5,433,000	7,423,038
Darfur	1,328,765	2,077,000	3,112,000	4,638,000	7,515,445
Equatoria	903,503	722,000	1,408,000	1,150,000	2,628,747
Kassala	941,039	1,497,000	2,209,000	3.067,000	4,534,294
Khartoum	504,923	1,096,000	1,802,000	3,512,000	5,274,321
Kordofan	1,761,968	2,098,000	3,091,000	3,323,000	4,327,396
Northern	873,059	918,000	1,084,000	1,293,000	1,819,506
Upper Nile	888,611	761,000	1,595,000	1,258,000	2,908,756
Total	10,262,536	14,114,000	20,598,000	25,588,000	39,154,000

Sources: 

1. [1] Recensements Africains, 1^ere partie, Monographes Méthodologiques, suite. Groupe de Travail de Démographie Africaine, Paris, 1981.
2. [2] Library of Congress country study  (retrieved 1999).
3. [3] Population , from Central Bureau of Statistics report on the 2008 census, has proleptic region populations back to 1973. Totals don't quite match state and region figures, probably because of rounding. Comparing these figures to source [6], we learn that the 2008 populations were all rounded downward to a multiple of 1,000.
4. [4] UN Sudan Information Gateway  has Sudan maps of various dates.
5. [5] UNMIS CPA Monitor had an article on the South Sudan agreement (http://home.planet.nl/~ende0098/Articles/20070500.html, dead link, retrieved 2007).
6. [6] Priority Results  from the Fifth Sudan Population and Housing Census, 2008. Central Bureau of Statistics. Dated 2009-04-08, retrieved 2011-08-10. Contains unrounded.
7. [7] "Darfur to be cut into smaller states ..."  (dated 2011-03-08, retrieved 2011-12-27).
8. [8] Sudanese president issues Republican decree on referendum on Darfur status  , [Chinese] People's Daily Online (dated 2011-03-30, retrieved 2011-12-27).
9. [9] Sudan’s government endorses Darfur’s division into five states , Sudan Tribune (dated 2011-05-05, retrieved 2011-12-27).
10. [10] Aras, Damla. Sudan's Ticking Time Bombs , Middle East Quarterly, Fall 2011, pp. 79-84 (retrieved 2011-12-27).
11. [11] President to Appoint Darfur LJM Ministers , AllAfrica.com (dated 2011-12-17, retrieved 2011-12-27).
12. [12] Sudan Will Split Darfur Into Five States  ..., Bloomberg News (dated 2011-12-21, retrieved 2011-12-27).
13. [13] Sudan: Darfur Peace Process Ramps Up in 2012 . AllAfrica.com (dated 2012-01-19, retrieved 2012-05-29).
14. [14] Sudan's Ministry of the Cabinet Affairs  (retrieved 2012-05-29).
15. [15] "War-torn Sudan to be further divided" . Mail & Guardian (South Africa) online newspaper (retrieved 2013-07-14).
16. [16] "Sudan shuffles governors of Kordofan states ..." . Sudan Tribune online newspaper (retrieved 2013-07-14).