Buy data    Donate

Updates: 

Singapore has had a unitary government since independence. It defines regions, districts, and so on as needed for the nonce, but they change frequently. I had optimistically listed five districts as of 2001, but they proved to be as ephemeral as the rest. Those five are still shown under Change history.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-9 was published on 2007-11-28. It contains codes for the same five districts.

Country overview: 

Short name	SINGAPORE
ISO code	SG
FIPS code	SN
Language	Chinese (zh), Malay (ms), Tamil (ta), English (en)
Time zone	+8
Capital	Singapore

 

In 1900, Singapore was one of the Straits Settlements. It had two dependencies: Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands. See the history of Malaysia for the context of Singapore's changes. Singapore gained independence on 1965-08-09.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Singapore
2. Dutch: Singapore, Republiek Singapore (formal)
3. English: Republic of Singapore (formal)
4. Finnish: Singapore
5. French: Singapour
6. German: Singapur n
7. Icelandic: Singapúr
8. Italian: Singapore f
9. Norwegian: Singapore, Republikken Singapore (formal)
10. Portuguese: Singapura, Cingapura (Brazil), República f de Singapura (formal)
11. Russian: Республика Сингапур (formal)
12. Spanish: Singapur, República f de Singapur m (formal)
13. Swedish: Singapore
14. Turkish: Singapur Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

Hindi singh: lion, pur: city

Primary subdivisions: 

Singapore has no known administrative divisions.

Country	HASC	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)
Singapore	SG.SG	3,771,721	723	279
Country: This division is the whole of the country, treated as a division for compatibility. HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision code. Population: 2010-06-30 census.

Postal codes: 

Singapore uses six-digit postal codes.

Further subdivisions:

The districts are administered by Community Development Councils (CDCs). They are divided into a mixture of group representation constituencies (GRCs) and single member constituencies (SMCs). GRCs consist of several constituencies (sometimes also called divisions or districts); SMCs contain only one such constituency apiece. As of 2004 there are fourteen GMCs and nine SMCs, further subdivided into 84 constituencies. Source [3] has a breakdown of this administrative structure. As of 2004, there are also 16 town councils, each of which covers one or more GRCs and SMCs.

Territorial extent: 

Singapore consists entirely of islands off the southern tip of the Malay peninsula. By far the largest is Singapore Island. Some others are Pulau Tekong, Pulau Ubin, Sentosa, and Pulau Senang.

The UN LOCODE page  for Singapore 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.

Change history: 

1. 1900: Christmas Island became part of Singapore settlement.
2. 1903: Cocos (Keeling) Islands became part of Singapore.
3. 1907: Labuan, an island off the coast of Borneo, merged with Singapore.
4. 1912: Labuan split from Singapore to become a separate settlement in the Straits Settlements.
5. 1946-04-01: Singapore split from Straits Settlements to become a British colony.
6. 1955-11-23: Cocos (Keeling) Islands transferred from Singapore to Australia.
7. 1958-10-01: Christmas Island transferred from Singapore to Australia.
8. 1963-09-16: Singapore merged with other entities to form Federation of Malaysia.
9. 1965-08-09: Singapore split from Federation of Malaysia to become an independent country.
10. ~1995: Singapore had six districts: Bukit Panjang, Jurong, Katong, Serangoon, Singapore City, and Southern Islands. I don't know of any administrative structures corresponding to these districts.
11. 1997-03-29: Marine Parade and Tanjong Pagar were the only districts established when the People's Association Rules (source [4]) were first published.
12. 1997-08-30: CDC Rules amended. Ang Mo Kio-Cheng San, Bukit Timah, Central Singapore, Hougang, Northeast, Potong Pasir, and Sembawang-Hong Kah districts added.
13. 1997-12-13: CDC Rules took effect. The nine districts became the administrative divisions of Singapore.
14. 2001-11-24: Singapore reorganized into these five districts:

District	HASC	ISO	Former
Central Singapore	SG.CS	01	Ang Mo Kio-Cheng San, Central Singapore, Tanjong Pagar
North East	SG.NE	02	Hougang, North East
North West	SG.NW	03	Sembawang-Hong Kah
South East	SG.SE	04	Marine Parade, Potong Pasir
South West	SG.SW	05	Bukit Timah, Sembawang-Hong Kah, Tanjong Pagar
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. Former: Approximate equivalent area in pre-2001 districts.

1. 2010-06-30: The 2010 census report shows Singapore divided into five regions: Central, East, North, North-East, and West. They are not the same as the districts of 2001.

Population history:

Census	Population
1947-09-09	940,756
1957-06-17	1,448,548
1970-06-22	2,074,507
1980-06-24	2,413,945
1990-06-30	2,690,200
2000-06-30	3,263,209
2010-06-30	3,771,721

 

The 1957 population includes Christmas Island, pop. 2,619.

Sources: 

1. [1] Census of Population 2010 Statistical Release 1:  Demographic Characteristics, Education, Language and Religion. Department of Statistics, Singapore, 2011 (retrieved 2013-07-30).
2. [2] Encyclopædia Britannica World Atlas, 1951 edition.
3. [3] CDC (http://www.cdc.org.sg/1162796267684/1162796267730.html, dead link).
4. [4] People's Association Rules (CDC Rules) (http://www.pa.gov.sg/aboutpa/PA%20CDCs%20Rules.pdf, dead link).