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Updates: 

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter I-8, published on 2007-04-17, has new ISO parish codes for Barbados. They are shown in the table below. They replace codes from a draft version, ISO/DIS 2166-2, which had not been supported.

I found a source for the 2000 census. A report for Barbados on the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination  has a population table. It is attributed to the "2000 Population and Housing Census."

On 1966-11-30, Barbados became independent. A Geographic Note from the Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the U.S. State Department, issued on that same date, says: "Administratively, the Northern and Southern district councils and Bridgetown City Council comprise the first-order civil divisions.... Eleven parishes and the City of Bridgetown (not to be confused with the City Council) are not administrative entities; they presently serve as electoral districts." An accompanying map shows that the Bridgetown City Council has about half of Saint Michael parish and a fragment of Christ Church parish as its jurisdiction. The North district includes the parishes of Saint Andrew, Saint James, Saint Joseph, Saint Lucy, Saint Peter, and Saint Thomas. The South district covers the remainder of the country. Ordinarily, I don't count electoral districts as administrative subdivisions, because they tend to change frequently under redistricting, and it's hard to get maps of them. Barbados is an exception: the parishes have been stable for at least 100 years, and I've seen more maps that show the parishes than the districts. Therefore, I would stay with the parishes as primary divisions of Barbados.

International standard ISO 3166-2 was published on December 15, 1998. It superseded ISO/DIS 3166-2 (draft international standard). For Barbados, the draft standard showed eleven parishes with their codes. The final standard mentions that there are eleven parishes, but declines to specify names or codes. It says that these divisions are "not relevant".

Country overview: 

Short name	BARBADOS
ISO code	BB
FIPS code	BB
Language	English (en)
Time zone	-4
Capital	Bridgetown

 

Barbados was a British possession, until it achieved independence on 1966-11-30.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Barbados
2. Dutch: Barbados
3. English: Barbadoes (obsolete)
4. Finnish: Barbados
5. French: Barbade f
6. German: Barbados n, Barbaden p (obsolete)
7. Icelandic: Barbadoseyjar
8. Italian: Barbados
9. Norwegian: Barbados
10. Portuguese: Barbados
11. Spanish: Barbados
12. Swedish: Barbados

Origin of name: 

Portuguese: the bearded ones, from beard-shaped fig tree leaves.

Primary subdivisions: 

Barbados is divided into eleven parishes.

Parish	HASC	ISO	FIPS	L	PC	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)
Christ Church	BB.CC	01	BB01	X	17	49,497	57	22
Saint Andrew	BB.AN	02	BB02	A	25	5,254	36	14
Saint George	BB.GE	03	BB03	G	19	17,868	44	17
Saint James	BB.JM	04	BB04	S	24	22,741	31	12
Saint John	BB.JN	05	BB05	J	20	8,873	34	13
Saint Joseph	BB.JS	06	BB06	O	21	6,805	26	10
Saint Lucy	BB.LU	07	BB07	L	27	9,328	36	14
Saint Michael	BB.MI	08	BB08	M	11-14	83,684	39	15
Saint Peter	BB.PE	09	BB09	E	26	10,699	34	13
Saint Philip	BB.PH	10	BB10	P	18	22,864	60	23
Saint Thomas	BB.TH	11	BB11	T	22	12,397	34	13
11 parishes						250,010	431	166
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. L: License plate code (see below) PC: Postal code (see below) Population: 2000-05-01 census

Postal codes: 

Barbados has recently assigned a set of postal codes in the format BBxxyyy, where the x's and y's represent digits. The xx part looks as if it's closely related to the parish, although not completely coincident with it. The table above gives the xx part for the central post office(s) in each parish.

The "L" column above shows license plate codes as listed by "Where's That Vehicle Come From? ". These codes were used as ISO 3166-2 codes in the draft standard of 1997, except that X was replaced by C for Christ Church; but they were never part of the published standard.

Change history: 

The Barbados government's official history page  has this to say about local government:

"Local government was in operation for sometime until 1969. When it was introduced, each parish had its own local government system called the Vestry. The vestries were later abolished and the island divided into three areas - two districts served by councils and the third, the City of Bridgetown was given a City Council and a Mayor.

"In 1967 the councils were abolished and local government affairs were administered by an Interim Commissioner for Local Government. Two years later the system ended, when the functions of the local government service were transferred to central government and statutory boards."

The Notable Dates  page on the same website adds these details.

1. 1629: The island was divided into six parishes.
2. 1645: The island was divided into eleven parishes.
3. 1967-04: The system of Local Government Council[s] was dissolved and replaced by an Interim Commissioner for Local Government.
4. 1969-09-01: All Local Government services were transferred from the interim Commissioner to the Central Government and such statutory bodies as the Sanitation and Cemeteries Board, the National Assistance Board and Parks and Beaches Commission.

Although the parishes may not have an administrative function any more, they can still be seen on up-to-date maps, and they are constantly used as a guide to location on the island.

Population history:

Year	1960-04-07	1970-04-07	1980-05-12	1990-05-02	2000-05-01
Christ Church	33,425	35,987	40,206	46,943	49,497
Saint Andrew	7,813	7,163	6,720	5,624	5,254
Saint George	17,255	16,841	17,190	16,718	17,868
Saint James	13,611	13,379	16,941	20,771	22,741
Saint John	10,967	10,524	10,256	9,640	8,873
Saint Joseph	8,582	7,849	7,213	7,204	6,805
Saint Lucy	8,997	8,746	9,239	9,277	9,328
Saint Michael	93,716	97,567	96,916	89,840	83,684
Saint Peter	10,860	10,622	10,623	10,055	10,699
Saint Philip	17,075	16,810	18,337	20,540	22,864
Saint Thomas	10,026	10,539	10,587	10,676	12,397
11 parishes	232,327	236,029	244,228	247,288	250,010

 

Barbados's population figures vary from source to source. Its 1980 census report gives five different figures for the total population.

1. (1) 253,883 enumerated in "visitation records"
2. (2) 252,029 estimated de-facto population
3. (3) 247,129 estimated resident population
4. (4) 244,228 total "tabulable" population
5. (5) 248,983 population "usually resident"

The calculations are reported as follows:

1. (2) = (1) minus the number of residents abroad on census night
2. (3) = (2) minus the number of non-residents enumerated
3. (4) = (3) minus the institutional population excluded from tables (mainly prisoners and hospital patients)
4. (5) = (1) minus the number of non-residents enumerated

Apparently these or similar calculations are performed for every census.