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November, 2003

Changes affecting status:

1. Bahrain: Reorganized into five governorates.
2. Indonesia: West Papua province split from Papua.
3. Italy: More news about provinces being created.
4. Vietnam: Two new provinces and one new municipality.

Other data added:

1. Richard Forstall has contributed a supply of Geographic Notes from the geographer of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the U.S. State Department. They cover the period roughly from 1965-1981. Using those notes, I have been able to add to the change histories for Afghanistan, Algeria, Andorra, Bahrain, Barbados, Belize, Bhutan, Botswana, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Colombia, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (Kinshasa), Côte d'Ivoire, Cuba, Czech Republic, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Kiribati, Laos, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, Pakistan, Romania, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Vietnam, Yemen, and Zambia. (Some updates also come from the Europa World Year Book 2001.)
2. Australia: Added census data from 2001 and other years.
3. Burkina Faso: Added 1997 population estimates.
4. Cameroon: Added 1987 census data.
5. Central African Republic: Changed one capital.
6. China: Found new area of Chongqing.
7. Colombia: Added 1993 census.
8. Ecuador: Added 2001 census data.
9. Ethiopia: Added 1999 population estimates.
10. Gabon: Added 1993 census data (provisional).
11. Grenada: Added recent censuses and parish capitals.
12. Guinea-Bissau: Added 1991 census.
13. Maldives: New postal codes.
14. Pakistan: Added 1998 census.
15. Saint Kitts-Nevis: Added recent censuses.
16. Turkey: Added 2001 populations.
17. Added a discussion of Using ISO 3166-1 in Software.
18. Found a new Erratum in the book under Mexico.
19. For the most populous subdivisions on the factoids page, I updated the Chinese provinces using 1999-12-31 estimates. I prefer not to use intercensal estimates, but this time it was necessary in order to take account of the separation of Chongqing from Sichuan. There are also minor changes to the most popular statoid names. "Central" has pulled out into first place.
20. I've checked the international dialing prefixes. Christmas Island is supposed to be changing from +672 to +61. Tajikistan has changed from +7 to +992. Timor-Leste should be +670, not +62. American Samoa is changing from +684 to +1-684, which is the prefix I had been reporting already. This change won't be implemented until October 2004, but I'll leave the prefix +1-684 in anticipation.

Secondary divisions:

1. Belgium: Added populations of arrondissements.
2. Cameroon: Updated departments, added to change history, added alternate names.
3. Colombia: Added municipalities.
4. Congo (Kinshasa) Added administrative zones.
5. Ecuador: Added populations, areas, and capitals of cantons.
6. Finland: Added populations and areas of regional councils.
7. Pakistan: Added 1998 census.

Site design changes:

1. I've finished color-coding the tables on this site. Tables with a yellow color scheme contain the most current list of subdivisions available; tables with a purple color scheme are historical or supporting data. (If you notice any errors in color-coding, please let me know.)