
ISO 3166-2 Newsletter number I-4, dated 2002-12-10, adds the new Mwaro province to the list. I have inserted the new code for Mwaro province in the table below.
Change Notice 7 to FIPS PUB 10-4 is dated 2002-01-10. It shows that Muramvya province has split into a smaller Muramvya
province and Mwaro province. Probably these are the same as the arrondissements of Muramvya and Mwaro, as they stood in
1978. According to a Burundi government press release
dated November
12 (no year), the Burundi parliament voted "this Tuesday" to split the province of Mwaro from Muramvya. It must have
happened no later than 2000, because a U.N. map dated 2001-01 shows Mwaro. The same press release adds that the creation
of two additional provinces, Bukirasazi and Rumonge, was being considered. Bukirasazi would probably be split from
Gitega, and Rumonge from Bururi, if the project goes through.
The government Web site
also says (translated), "Burundi is currently
divided into administrative structures among which the province is the largest. The country counts fifteen of them,
namely, Bubanza, Bujumbura, Bururi, Cankuzo, Cibitoke, Gitega, Karuzi, Kayanza, Kirundo, Makamba, Muramvya, Muyinga,
Ngozi, Rutana, and Ruyigi, to which must be added the urban province of Bujumbura. A governor leads each province. The
province is subdivided into communes, each directed by a communal administrator. There are 116 of them. This
administrative entity is in turn subdivided into administrative zones, and further into collines (literally, 'hills')."
This was evidently written before the creation of Mwaro.
Were there fifteen provinces, or sixteen? Were there separate provinces of Bujumbura urban and Bujumbura rural, both equal in status to the fourteen others, or did they constitute a single Bujumbura province? The standards seem to agree in listing only one Bujumbura province. However, a number of Internet sites are now mentioning the provinces of "Bujumbura Rural" and "Bujumbura Mairie". (One of the meanings of French mairie is "municipal administration".)
My conclusion is that the table of primary subdivisions below probably represents the divisions of Burundi as of 2001-01-01.

| Short name | BURUNDI |
| ISO code | BI |
| FIPS code | BY |
| Languages | Kirundi (rn), French (fr) |
| Time zone | +2 |
| Capital | Bujumbura |
The territory which is now Burundi was part of German East Africa at the beginning of the century. In 1919, Ruanda-Urundi was mandated to Belgium. It consisted of two counties: Ruanda in the north and Urundi in the south. It became administratively part of the Belgian Congo on 1926-03-01. The two counties became résidences (residencies). In 1960, the Belgian Congo became independent; Ruanda-Urundi remained a colony. On 1962-07-01, when Ruanda-Urundi attained independence, the two counties became the countries of Rwanda and Burundi. The capital of Ruanda-Urundi, which had been known as Usumbura, changed its name to Bujumbura and became the capital of Burundi.


Ethnic name Barundi, applied to a country

Burundi is divided into seventeen provinces.
| Province | HASC | ISO | FIPS | Population | Area(km.²) | Area(mi.²) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bubanza | BI.BB | BB | BY09 | 289,060 | 1,089 | 420 |
| Bujumbura Mairie | BI.BM | 319,098 | 87 | 33 | ||
| Bujumbura Rural | BI.BU | BJ | BY02 | 436,896 | 1,089 | 420 |
| Bururi | BI.BR | BR | BY10 | 437,931 | 2,465 | 952 |
| Cankuzo | BI.CA | CA | BY11 | 172,477 | 1,965 | 759 |
| Cibitoke | BI.CI | CI | BY12 | 385,438 | 1,636 | 631 |
| Gitega | BI.GI | GI | BY13 | 628,872 | 1,979 | 764 |
| Karuzi | BI.KR | KR | BY14 | 384,187 | 1,457 | 563 |
| Kayanza | BI.KY | KY | BY15 | 458,815 | 1,233 | 476 |
| Kirundo | BI.KI | KI | BY16 | 502,171 | 1,703 | 658 |
| Makamba | BI.MA | MA | BY17 | 357,492 | 1,960 | 757 |
| Muramvya | BI.MV | MU | BY22 | 252,833 | 696 | 269 |
| Muyinga | BI.MY | MY | BY18 | 485,347 | 1,836 | 709 |
| Mwaro | BI.MW | MW | BY23 | 229,013 | 840 | 324 |
| Ngozi | BI.NG | NG | BY19 | 601,382 | 1,474 | 569 |
| Rutana | BI.RT | RT | BY20 | 244,939 | 1,959 | 757 |
| Ruyigi | BI.RY | RY | BY21 | 304,567 | 2,339 | 903 |
| 17 provinces | 6,490,518 | 25,807 | 9,964 | |||
| ||||||
See the Communes of Burundi page.
The regions are subdivided into 114 districts, and the districts are subdivided into communes. Before 1979, there were eight provinces, subdivided into 18 arrondissements, which were further divided into 78 communes.

. Edition Universelle, Brussels, 1946.)| Province | FIPS | Population | Area(km.²) | Arrondissements |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bubanza | BY01 | 293,221 | 2,670 | Bubanza, Cibitoke |
| Bujumbura | BY02 | 386,041 | 1,255 | Bujumbura, Mwisare |
| Bururi | BY03 | 398,614 | 4,680 | Bururi, Makamba |
| Gitega | BY04 | 612,118 | 3,320 | Bukirasazi, Gitega, Karuzi |
| Muramvya | BY05 | 342,722 | 1,510 | Muramvya, Mwaro |
| Muyinga | BY06 | 494,140 | 3,535 | Kirundo, Muyinga |
| Ngozi | BY07 | 714,476 | 2,595 | Kayanza, Ngozi |
| Ruyigi | BY08 | 348,102 | 5,445 | Cankuzo, Rutana, Ruyigi |
| 8 provinces | 3,589,434 | 25,010 | ||
| ||||
BY05, HASC code BI.MU).
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