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Updates: 

Update 12 to Geopolitical Entities and Codes (formerly FIPS 10-4) is dated 2013-06-30. It assigns codes to the island councils.

ISO 3166-2 has come out in a second edition, dated 2007-12-15. Unexpectedly, the code for Nui council was changed from NIU to NUI.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter I-8, published on 2007-04-17, has new ISO council codes for Tuvalu. They are shown in the table below. They are the same as the codes from an early draft version, ISO/DIS 2166-2, which had not been supported.

Country overview: 

Short name	TUVALU
ISO code	TV
FIPS code	TV
Language	Tuvalu,English (en)
Time zone	+12
Capital	Funafuti

 

The Gilbert and Ellice Islands were a British protectorate at the beginning of the 20th century. The colony of Gilbert and Ellice Islands was formed on 1915-11-12, by annexing some additional island possessions to the protectorate. The Ellice Islands separated on 1975-10-01, taking the name Tuvalu. The country became fully independent exactly three years later.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Tuvalu
2. Dutch: Tuvalu
3. English: Ellice Islands (obsolete)
4. Finnish: Tuvalu
5. French: Tuvalu m
6. German: Tuvalu n
7. Icelandic: Túvalú
8. Italian: Tuvalu
9. Norwegian: Tuvalu
10. Portuguese: Tuvalu
11. Russian: Тувалу
12. Spanish: Tuvalu
13. Swedish: Tuvalu
14. Turkish: Tuvalu

Origin of name: 

"Tuvalu" is said to be Tuvaluan for "eight islands" or "cluster of eight". (In fact, there are nine inhabited islands.)

Primary subdivisions: 

Tuvalu is divided into seven island councils and a town council.

Council	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Funafuti	TV.FN	FUN	TV01	4,492	2.8	1.1	Fongafale
Nanumanga	TV.NG	NMG	TV02	589	2.8	1.1	Tonga
Nanumea	TV.NA	NMA	TV03	664	3.9	1.5	Lolua
Niutao	TV.NT	NIT	TV04	698	3.0	1.1	Kua
Nui	TV.NU	NUI	TV05	548	2.8	1.1	Tanrake
Nukufetau	TV.NF	NKF	TV06	586	3.0	1.2	Savave
Nukulaelae	TV.NL	NKL	TV07	393	1.8	0.7	Fangaua
Vaitupu	TV.VI	VAI	TV08	1,591	5.6	2.2	Asau
8 councils				9,561	25.6	9.9
Council: These divisions are island councils, except for Funafuti, which is a town council. HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Population: 2002-11-01 census.

Territorial extent: 

Niutao includes the island of Niulakita (Nurakita).

The UN LOCODE page  for Tuvalu 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.

Sources: 

1. [1] "Other Statistics". Central Statistics Division (http://www.spc.int/prism/Country/TV/Stats/Othstats/census_02.htm, dead link, retrieved 2005-04-06). This page had 2002 census data, with Niulakita separate from Niutao. I combined the two islands.