Buy data    Donate

Updates: 

Bolivia adopted a new constitution in 2009. It provides for the potential autonomy of certain subdivisions. The province of Gran Chaco has voted to be made into an autonomous region. Currently (2013-11), a Plurinational Constitutional Court is deliberating on the constitutional admissibility of this request.

I've updated the population using 2012 census figures as given in source [10], provided by Sorin Cosoveanu.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter number II-1, dated 2010-02-03, has only one change for Bolivia. It recognizes the new country name, Plurinational State of Bolivia.

Source [5] defines a set of codes for the subdivisions of the member countries of the Comunidad Andina  (Andean Community): Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. The codes and subdivision names constitute the Nomenclatura de las Unidades Territoriales Estadísticas de la Comunidad Andina (NUTE ANDINA) (Nomenclature of Statistical Territorial Units). This work appears to be part of a collaboration with Eurostat, the European consortium that developed the NUTS codes for subdivisions of countries.

Country overview: 

Short name	BOLIVIA
ISO code	BO
FIPS code	BL
Language	Spanish (es)
Time zone	-4
Capitals	La Paz, Sucre

 

Bolivia has been independent for the whole 20th century. It has had numerous boundary disputes with its neighbors, usually losing. Its boundaries have remained quite stable since 1950.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Bolivia
2. Dutch: Bolivië, Republiek Bolivië (formal)
3. English: Plurinational State of Bolivia (formal)
4. Finnish: Bolivia
5. French: Bolivie, État m Plurinational de Bolivie f (formal)
6. German: Bolivien n
7. Icelandic: Bólivía
8. Italian: Bolivia f
9. Norwegian: Bolivia, Republikken Bolivia (formal)
10. Portuguese: Bolívia, República f da Bolívia f (formal)
11. Russian: Многонациональное Государство Боливия (formal)
12. Spanish: Bolivia, Estado m Plurinacional de Bolivia f (formal)
13. Swedish: Bolivia
14. Turkish: Bolivya Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

Named in honor of Simón Bolívar (1783-1830), independence fighter.

Primary subdivisions: 

Bolivia is divided into nine departamentos (departments).

Department	HASC	ISO	FIPS	NUTE	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Chuquisaca	BO.CQ	H	BL01	10301	576,153	51,524	19,894	Sucre
Cochabamba	BO.CB	C	BL02	10303	1,758,143	55,631	21,479	Cochabamba
El Beni	BO.EB	B	BL03	10208	421,196	213,564	82,458	Trinidad
La Paz	BO.LP	L	BL04	10102	2,706,359	133,985	51,732	La Paz
Oruro	BO.OR	O	BL05	10104	494,178	53,588	20,690	Oruro
Pando	BO.PA	N	BL06	10209	110,436	63,827	24,644	Cobija
Potosí	BO.PO	P	BL07	10105	823,517	118,218	45,644	Potosí
Santa Cruz	BO.SC	S	BL08	10207	2,655,084	370,621	143,098	Santa Cruz (de la Sierra)
Tarija	BO.TR	T	BL09	10306	482,196	37,623	14,526	Tarija
9 departments					10,027,262	1,098,581	424,164
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. Same as first letter on vehicle plates. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. NUTE: Nomenclature of Statistical Territorial Units. Population: 2012-11-21 census (source [10]).

Further subdivisions:

See the Provinces of Bolivia page.

The departments are divided into 112 provincias (provinces). The provinces are subdivided into secciones de provincias (sections or subprovinces). The sections are further subdivided into cantones (cantons). A 1995 book says there were 301 sections and 1,408 cantons. There are also administrative divisions known as municipios (municipalities). According to older sources, the municipalities were only defined in urban areas; however, the 2012 census report shows that the sum of the populations of the municipalities equals the total population of Bolivia.

Source [4] says that there were 324 municipalities as of 2002-06-30. Among them there were ten newly-created municipalities (since 1999) which had not been completely demarcated yet. Source [10] lists 339 municipalities, among which are 25 marked as newly created since the 2001 census. This implies that there were 314 municipalities at the time of the 2001 census, and all ten municipalities referred to in source [4] were created between 2001-09-05 and 2002-06-30.

The first three digits of the NUTE codes represent an arbitrary set of statistical areas. 101 is Occidental (Western), 102 is Oriental (Eastern), and 103 is Central.

Territorial extent: 

The border between Cochabamba and El Beni is still not defined.

The UN LOCODE page  for Bolivia 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.

Origins of names: 

1. El Beni: from the River Beni. Beni is Pano (a native dialect) for river.
2. La Paz: earlier name Nuestra Señora de la Paz, Spanish for "Our Lady of Peace." So named to encourage an end to internecine strife among the conquistadores.
3. Oruro: native word for "black and white," referring to petroglyphs.
4. Potosí: probably from Quechua potojchi: rumbling noise
5. Santa Cruz: city founded by missionaries on 1560-09-14, festival of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Spanish: Exaltación de la Santa Cruz).

Change history: 

1. 1826-01-23: After achieving independence on 1825-08-06, Bolivia established the departments of Chuquisaca, Cochabamba, La Paz, Potosí, and Santa Cruz (and probably additional territory).
2. 1826-09-05: Oruro department created.
3. 1831-09-24: Tarija department created.
4. 1842-11-18: El Beni department created.
5. 1900-03-23: Acre reconquered by Bolivia after proclaiming its independence on 1899-07-14.
6. 1903-11-17: Brazil purchased the Acre territory from Bolivia for two million pounds in the Treaty of Petrópolis; border demarcated 1909-09-08.
7. ~1924: Madre de Dios territory split from La Paz department.
8. 1925: Bolivia (Potosí department) acquired land from Argentina (Jujuy province).
9. ~1938: Madre de Dios renamed Colonial Territories (Spanish: Territorio de Colonias).
10. 1938: Bolivia and Paraguay had a long-standing dispute over the Gran Chaco, which lay between the Paraguay and Pilcomayo Rivers north into Santa Cruz. Until 1932, it was divided along a line roughly from the split of the Pilcomayo River to Fuerte Olimpo. Oil was discovered. Both countries tried to assert their rights. They fought the Chaco War from 1932 to 1935. In the eventual peace settlement, Bolivia lost most of the disputed territory - parts of Chuquisaca, Santa Cruz, and Tarija departments - to Paraguay.
11. 1938-09-24: Colonial Territories became Pando department.
12. ~1943: There was a short-lived Chaco department, capital Villa Montes, later annexed to Tarija.
13. There have been minor adjustments to the department boundaries.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. El Beni: Beni (variant)
2. Pando: Colonial Territories, Madre de Dios (obsolete); Territorio Nacional de Colonias (obsolete-Spanish)

Population history:

Department	1900	1950-09-05	1976-09-29	1992-06-03	2001-09-05	2012-11-21
Chuquisaca	204,434	282,980	358,516	453,756	531,522	576,153
Cochabamba	328,163	490,475	720,952	1,110,205	1,455,711	1,758,143
El Beni	32,180	119,770	168,367	276,174	362,521	421,196
La Paz	445,616	948,446	1,465,078	1,900,786	2,350,466	2,706,359
Oruro	86,081	210,260	310,409	340,114	391,870	494,178
Pando	10,000	19,804	34,493	38,072	52,525	110,436
Potosí	325,615	534,399	657,743	645,889	709,013	823,517
Santa Cruz	209,592	286,145	710,724	1,364,389	2,029,471	2,655,084
Tarija	102,887	126,752	187,204	291,407	391,226	482,196
Totals	1,744,568	3,019,031	4,613,486	6,420,792	8,274,325	10,027,262

 

Data for 1900 come from source [7]; 1950, from sources [8] and [9]; 1976 to 2001, from source [3]; 2012, from source [10]. In regard to the 1950 census, source [8] says, "Figures adjusted to account for an estimated 8.4 percent underenumeration; population actually enumerated was 2,704,165." Source [9] says, "Including adjustment of 314,866 for underenumeration and estimated tribal Indian population."

Sources: 

1. [1] Library of Congress country study  (retrieved 1999).
2. [2] Atlas de Bolivia. Ediciones Geomundo, Barcelona, Spain, 1985.
3. [3] Instituto Nacional de Estadística de Bolivia, table of department populations (http://www.ine.gov.bo/cgi-bin/piwdie1xx.exe/TIPO, dead link, retrieved 2004-05-15).
4. [4] A paper on Bolivia posted at the website of the Ohio State University Agriculture department (http://www-agecon.ag.ohio-state.edu/programs/ruralfinance/PDF%20Docs/Publications/Bolivia/Papers/Spanish/Bolivia.cobertura_2002-anx.pdf, dead link, retrieved 2004-11-09).
5. [5] Decision 534 , Nomenclatura de las Unidades Territoriales Estadísticas de la Comunidad Andina (NUTE ANDINA). Comunidad Andina, dated 2002-10-02, retrieved 2004-11-09.
6. [6] Instituto Nacional de Estadística de Bolivia (http://www.ine.gov.bo/, dead link, retrieved 2002-11-02, had 2001 census results).
7. [7] Keltie, J. Scott, ed. The Statesman's Year-Book 1913. Macmillan, London, 1913.
8. [8] Demographic Yearbook , 7th Edition. Statistical Office of the United Nations, New York, 1955 (retrieved 2011-08-20).
9. [9] Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th Edition, Chicago, 1984.
10. [10] "Decreto Supremo N° 1672 ", Gaceta Oficial del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia. La Paz, 2013-07-31. Annex "Bolivia: Población Según Municipio" (Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística; retrieved 2013-09-08).