
A document
issued by the
Comunidad Andina
(Andean Community) on 2002-10-02 defines a set of codes for the
subdivisions of the member countries: 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.
The Instituto Nacional de Estadística de Bolivia has released the results of the 2001-09-05 census. The departmental populations shown in the primary subdivisions table below were calculated by adding up the populations of the provinces in each department.

| 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.


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

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 | 531,522 | 51,524 | 19,894 | Sucre |
| Cochabamba | BO.CB | C | BL02 | 10303 | 1,455,711 | 55,631 | 21,479 | Cochabamba |
| El Beni | BO.EB | B | BL03 | 10208 | 362,521 | 213,564 | 82,458 | Trinidad |
| La Paz | BO.LP | L | BL04 | 10102 | 2,350,466 | 133,985 | 51,732 | La Paz |
| Oruro | BO.OR | O | BL05 | 10104 | 391,870 | 53,588 | 20,690 | Oruro |
| Pando | BO.PA | N | BL06 | 10209 | 52,525 | 63,827 | 24,644 | Cobija |
| Potosí | BO.PO | P | BL07 | 10105 | 709,013 | 118,218 | 45,644 | Potosí |
| Santa Cruz | BO.SC | S | BL08 | 10207 | 2,029,471 | 370,621 | 143,098 | Santa Cruz (de la Sierra) |
| Tarija | BO.TR | T | BL09 | 10306 | 391,226 | 37,623 | 14,526 | Tarija |
| 9 departments | 8,274,325 | 1,098,581 | 424,164 | |||||
| ||||||||
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), but they are only defined in urban areas. This
document
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.
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.

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



The Instituto Nacional de Estadística de Bolivia has posted department populations from the last four censuses. (The page has been taken offline, and I can't find a redirect.) "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries" listed population estimates for various years, but these are more authoritative. I have retained the 1900 populations from the book.
| Department | 1900 | 1950-09-05 | 1976-09-29 | 1992-06-03 | 2001-09-05 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chuquisaca | 196,434 | 260,479 | 358,516 | 453,756 | 531,522 |
| Cochabamba | 326,163 | 452,145 | 720,952 | 1,110,205 | 1,455,711 |
| El Beni | 25,680 | 71,636 | 168,367 | 276,174 | 362,521 |
| La Paz | 426,930 | 854,079 | 1,465,078 | 1,900,786 | 2,350,466 |
| Oruro | 86,081 | 192,356 | 310,409 | 340,114 | 391,870 |
| Pando | 7,228 | 16,284 | 34,493 | 38,072 | 52,525 |
| Potosí | 325,615 | 509,087 | 657,743 | 645,889 | 709,013 |
| Santa Cruz | 171,592 | 244,658 | 710,724 | 1,364,389 | 2,029,471 |
| Tarija | 67,887 | 103,441 | 187,204 | 291,407 | 391,226 |
| Totals | 1,633,610 | 2,704,165 | 4,613,486 | 6,420,792 | 8,274,325 |
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