Regions of Trinidad and Tobago

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Updates: 

"Geopolitical Entities, Names, and Codes, Edition 2" (GENC), a U.S. standard that's supposed to correspond to ISO 3166-2, was issued on 2014-03-31. It has codes for the regions of Trinidad and Tobago. Like GEC, it has only one code for Tobago: TT-TOB. An update to ISO 3166-2, dated 2015-11-27, withdraws the ISO codes for Eastern and Western Tobago and replaces them with TT-TOB for Tobago. It also changes the code for Mayaro/Rio Claro from TT-RCM to TT-MRC. The GENC code has not changed to match it. Now that none of the standards show Eastern and Western Tobago separately, I conclude they should be combined.

"Geopolitical Entities and Codes" (GEC) is the successor to FIPS standard 10-4. Update 13 to GEC is dated 2013-09-30. For Trinidad and Tobago, all it does is correct one misspelling.

Update 7 to GEC was issued with the date 2012-02-01. It reflects the changes that have occurred in the country's subdivisions since 1980. It shows Tobago as a single division, though. It also changes the spelling of Port-of-Spain to Port of Spain.

International standard ISO 3166-2 was published on December 15, 1998. It superseded ISO/DIS 3166-2 (draft international standard). For Trinidad and Tobago, the draft standard showed eight counties, three municipalities, and one ward. The final standard shows eleven regions and five municipalities. Most of the codes are different, but the code "SGE" was Saint George in the old scheme and Sangre Grande in the new one. The change in the standard corresponds to an actual change in the administrative division of Trinidad and Tobago.

Country overview: 

Short nameTRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
ISO codeTT
FIPS codeTD
LanguageEnglish (en)
Time zone-4
CapitalPort of Spain

 

Trinidad and Tobago was a British colony for the first part of the 20th century. On 1962-08-31 it became an independent member of the British Commonwealth.

Other names of country: 

  1. Danish: Trinidad og Tobago, Republikken Trinidad og Tobago (formal)
  2. Dutch: Trinidad en Tobago, Republiek Trinidad en Tobago (formal)
  3. English: Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (formal)
  4. Finnish: Trinidad ja Tobago
  5. French: Trinité-et-Tobago f
  6. German: Trinidad und Tobago n
  7. Icelandic: Trínidad og Tóbagó
  8. Italian: Trinidad e Tobago
  9. Norwegian: Trinidad og Tobago, Republikken Trinidad og Tobago (formal)
  10. Portuguese: Trindade e Tobago, Trinidad f e Tobago m (Brazil), Trinidade e Tobago (Brazil), República f de Trindade e Tobago (formal)
  11. Russian: Республика Тринидад и Тобаго (formal)
  12. Spanish: Trinidad y Tobago, Trinidad y Tabago, República f de Trinidad y Tobago (formal)
  13. Swedish: Trinidad och Tobago
  14. Turkish: Trinidad ve Tobago Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

Spanish Trinidad: Trinity, named by Columbus on sighting three peaks; Carib tavaco: tobacco pipe

Primary subdivisions: 

Trinidad and Tobago is divided into nine regions, three boroughs, two cities, and one ward.

NameTypeHASCISOFIPSPop-2011Pop-2000Area(km.²)Area(mi.²)CapitalFormer
ArimaborTT.ARARITD0133,60628,310114ArimaArima
ChaguanasborTT.CHCHATD1383,51661,8976023ChaguanasCaroni
Couva/Tabaquite/TalparoregTT.CTCTTTD14178,410152,483720278CouvaCaroni, Saint George, Victoria
Diego MartinregTT.DMDMNTD15102,95786,80512849Petit ValleySaint George
Mayaro/Rio ClaroregTT.MRMRCTD1635,65030,298853329Rio ClaroMayaro, Nariva
Penal/DeberegTT.PDPEDTD1789,39277,75624795PenalSaint Patrick, Victoria
Point FortinborTT.PFPTFTD1820,23517,755249Point FortinPoint Fortin
Port of SpaincitTT.PSPOSTD0537,07437,965135Port of SpainPort of Spain
Princes TownregTT.PTPRTTD19102,37585,682621240Princes TownVictoria
San FernandocitTT.SFSFOTD1048,83848,784197San FernandoSan Fernando
Sangre GranderegTT.SNSGETD2175,76658,311899347Sangre GrandeSaint Andrew, Saint David
San Juan/LaventilleregTT.SLSJLTD20157,258136,75922085LaventilleSaint George
SipariaregTT.SISIPTD2286,94977,010510197SipariaSaint Patrick
TobagowdTT.TOTOBTD1160,87444,190303117ScarboroughTobago
Tunapuna/PiarcoregTT.TPTUPTD23215,119170,767527204TunapunaSaint George
15 divisions1,328,0191,114,7725,1551,989  
  • Type: regions (reg), boroughs (bor), cities (cit), ward (wd).
  • HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes.
  • ISO: Region codes from ISO 3166-2. For full identification in a global context, prefix "TT-" to the code (ex: TT-SIP
    represents Siparia).
  • FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4.
  • Pop-2011: 2011-01-09 census (source [5]).
  • Pop-2000: 2000-05-15 census (source [2]).
  • Area: 2000-05-15 census.
  • Former: Pre-1990 divisions corresponding roughly to the territory of the modern division.

 

Note: the census data subdivide Tobago, not into Eastern and Western regions, but into seven parishes. Eastern Tobago includes the parishes of Saint George (2011 population: 6,875), Saint John (2,825), Saint Mary (3,297), and Saint Paul (6,048). Western Tobago includes Saint Andrew (17,536), Saint David (8,733), and Saint Patrick (15,560).

Postal codes: 

According to this TTPOST  page, Trinidad and Tobago launched a six-digit postal code scheme on 2012-03-28. The numbers are not yet available online. The first two digits of the code identify the main post office for processing deliveries. For example, Diego Martin's post office handles codes beginning with 12.

Territorial extent: 

  1. Tobago consists of the islands of Tobago, Little Tobago, and Saint Giles' Islands.
  2. The other divisions lie mainly on the island of Trinidad. In addition, Saint George includes the islands of Monos, Chacachacare, Gaspar Grande, and Huevos.

The UN LOCODE page  for Trinidad and Tobago 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. In 1900, Trinidad and Tobago was a British colony.
  2. 1945-06: County councils were established. Counties were Caroni, Mayaro, Nariva, Saint Andrew, Saint David, Saint George, Saint Patrick, Tobago, and Victoria. In addition, the borough of Arima and the cities of Port of Spain and San Fernando were independent of any county.
  3. 1962-08-31: Trinidad and Tobago became an independent member of the British Commonwealth.
  4. 1980: Tobago House of Assembly was formed as the organ of local government for Tobago. Status of Tobago changed to ward.
  5. 1980-04-30: Point Fortin municipality split from Saint Patrick county. The resulting divisions were as shown in this table.
CountyHASCISOFIPSTypPop-46Pop-70Pop-87Area(km.²)Area(mi.²)Capital
ArimaTT.ARARITD01mu8,069 11,63628,500104Arima
CaroniTT.CACARTD02cn61,739115,254167,300554214Chaguanas
MayaroTT.MAMAYTD03cn4,196 7,44833,200378146Rio Claro, Nariva
NarivaTT.NANARTD04cn11,815 20,902534206Rio Claro
Point FortinTT.PFPTFmu17,300  Point Fortin
Port of SpainTT.PSPOSTD05mu92,793 62,68058,30063Port-of-Spain
Saint AndrewTT.SASANTD06cn23,285 39,07157,800733283Sangre Grande
Saint DavidTT.SDSDATD07cn5,037 6,00920579Sangre Grande, Saint Andrew
Saint GeorgeTT.SGSGETD08cn138,362312,085435,800917354Tunapuna
Saint PatrickTT.SPSPATD09cn69,183117,189122,800676261Siparia
San FernandoTT.SFSFOTD10mu28,842 36,87933,10021San Fernando
TobagoTT.TOTOBTD11wd27,208 38,75444,300300116Scarborough
VictoriaTT.VIVICTD12cn87,441163,164218,700813314Princes Town
13 divisions557,970931,0711,217,1005,1281,981
  • Typ: county (cn), municipality (mu), or ward (wd).
  • HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes.
  • ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2.
  • FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4.
  • Pop-46: 1946-04-09 census (source [1]).
  • Pop-70: 1970-04-07 census (source [6]).
  • Pop-87: 1987 estimate. The Central Statistics Office reports Mayaro and Nariva as a unit,
    and Saint Andrew and Saint David as another unit.
  1. 1990: According to the Ministry of Local Government (source [3]), seven new boroughs or counties were created. I haven't been able to find any documentation on the resulting divisions. Could these be the seven parishes of Tobago?
  2. 1991-10-01: Chaguanas municipality split from Caroni county.
  3. 1992: Local government reorganized into the divisions shown in the table above. Note that the four counties named for saints were all on the island of Trinidad, and have disappeared, but there are now seven parishes named for saints, all on the island of Tobago, and the same four saints are still on the map.
  4. ~2014: I can find no current mention of Tobago being divided into Eastern and Western regions. If they did exist, they must have merged. Their former data were, Eastern Tobago (HASC code TT.ET, ISO code ETO, FIPS code TD11, 2011 population 19,045. 2000 pop. 14,887, area 215 km.², capital Roxborough) and Western Tobago (TT.WT, WTO, TD11, 41,829, 29,303, 88, Scarborough).

Other names of subdivisions: 

  1. Port of Spain: Port-of-Spain (variant); Puerto España (Spanish)
  2. San Juan/Laventille: San Juan/Lavantille (variant)
  3. Tobago: Tabago (Spanish)

Sources: 

  1. [1] Demographic Yearbook , 7th Ed. Statistical Office of the United Nations, New York, 1955 (retrieved 2011-08-20).
  2. [2] Trinidad and Tobago Central Statistical Office website, http://www.cso.gov.tt/census2000 (dead link, retrieved 2005-06-04).
  3. [3] Ministry of Local Government website, http://www.molg.gov.tt/contents.htm (dead link, retrieved 1999-09-23).
  4. [4] Profile of Local Government Corporations, http://www.nalis.gov.tt/agri/LupapCD/Table%20Profile%20Local%20Government.htm (dead link, retrieved 2003-02-18). Had area and population data "compiled by the Land Use Policy & Administration Project (LUPAP) from data supplied by CSO – Mapping Unit and Local Area Concept Plans (1999)".
  5. [5] Trinidad and Tobago 2011 Population and Housing Census : Demographic Report. The Central Statistical Office, Port of Spain, 2012 (retrieved 2013-07-29).
  6. [6] 1979 Demographic Yearbook , 31st Ed. Statistical Office, United Nations, New York, 1980 (retrieved 2011-12-28).
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