Districts of Botswana

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Updates: 

FIPS Publication Change Notice No. 10, affecting FIPS PUB 10-4, was issued on 2006-03-23. It assigns a FIPS code to North-West district.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter number I-5, dated 2003-09-05, shows a change in the divisions of Botswana. Chobe and Ngamiland [North-West] have been replaced by just North-West. The source for this change is information received from the Botswana Department of Surveys and Mapping, dated 2001. The simplest conclusion would be that Chobe and Ngamiland merged to form North-West in ~2001. I would guess that the capital of North-West is Maun, because it's much more centrally located than Kasane (the former capital of Chobe). I was only able to find one source on the Internet that confirmed the two districts were actually united: the IIASA site mentioned below under "Further subdivisions". Here is the new table of divisions of Botswana, assuming that my guesses are correct. This update should still be regarded as tentative.

I calculated the populations of the districts using the 2001 census returns by census district.

Country overview: 

Bechuanaland was a British protectorate at the beginning of the 20th century. It became independent, and took the name Botswana, on 1966-09-30. Its borders have remained almost the same.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Botswana
2. Dutch: Botswana, Republiek Botswana (formal)
3. English: Republic of Botswana (formal), Bechuanaland (obsolete)
4. Finnish: Botswana
5. French: Botswana m
6. German: Botsuana, Botswana n
7. Icelandic: Botsvana
8. Italian: Botswana f
9. Norwegian: Botswana, Republikken Botswana (formal)
10. Portuguese: Botswana, Botsuana, República f do Botswana m (formal)
11. Spanish: Botsuana, República f de Botswana (formal), Bechuania (obsolete)
12. Swedish: Botswana

Origin of name: 

Land of the Bechuana, or Tswana (ethnic name)

Primary subdivisions: 

Botswana is divided into nine districts.

Further subdivisions:

See the Sub-districts of Botswana page.

In addition to the districts, there are town councils and townships. These entities seem to change frequently. Some sources place them on the same level with the districts. I have classed them as subordinate to the districts. So do the standards.

Some of the districts are subdivided into census districts. In most countries, census districts are inherently variable. They are redrawn for each new census. For the 1991 census, these four districts had smaller census districts within them. (Source: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) General Information  page on Botswana.)

1. Central: Central Mahalapye, Serowe-Palapye, Central Bobonong, Central Boteti, Central Tutume
2. Kgalagadi: Kgalagadi-South, Kgalagadi-North
3. North-West: Ngamiland South, Ngamiland North, Chobe
4. Southern: Ngwaketse, Barolong

Territorial extent: 

1. Central includes the town councils or townships of Mahalapye, Orapa, Palapye, Selebi-Phikwe, Serowe, and Sowa.
2. North-East includes the town council of Francistown.
3. South-East includes the town councils of Gaborone and Lobatse.
4. Southern includes the town councils of Barolong and Jwaneng.

Change history: 

1. 1885-09-30: British protectorate established over Bechuanaland. By 1890, its territory was equivalent to present-day Botswana. A map for the period 1885-1899 shows the protectorate divided into tribal reserves, crown lands, and freehold districts. The crown lands are in two sections. One is roughly the same as present-day Ghanzi and Kgalagadi; the other includes parts of North-West and Central. The tribal reserves are BaTawana (now the western part of North-West), BamaNgwato (most of Central), BaKgatla (Kgatleng), BaKwena (Kweneng), BaLete (part of South-East), and BaNgwaketse (Southern). The freehold districts are Tati District (North-East), Gaberones Block, Lobatsi Block (both South-East), BaRolong Farms (a small part of Southern), and one which is unlabeled but matches the Tuli Block (Central). Source: Maylam, Paul. Rhodes, the Tswana, and the British: Colonialism, Collaboration, and Conflict in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, 1885-1899. Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 1980. According to Neil Parsons's online Brief History of Botswana , the protectorate remained divided into eight tribal reserves, five farm blocks, and crown lands into the 1930s.
2. The 1957 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica World Atlas lists the following divisions of Bechuanaland.

1. Gabecones is obviously a misprint for Gaberones. Tuli should be Tuli Block, a strip running along the Limpopo River and now contained in Central district. Note: the FIPS codes come from a document dated 1972-09-29, which lists the names of districts as they stood then.
2. ~1961: Name of Tati district changed to Francistown.
3. 1965: Capital moved from Mafeking, South Africa, to Gaborone.
4. 1966-09-30: Bechuanaland Protectorate became independent, and took the name Botswana..
5. 1969-08-15: Name of national capital, and its district, changed from Gaberones to Gaborone. Names of Lobatsi district and its capital changed to Lobatse. Name of Tuli Block changed to Tuli. Name of capital of Kgalagadi district changed from Tsabong to Tshabong. (Date given is the publication date of the decree.)
6. ~1980: Tuli district merged with Ngwato (Central). Lobatse district split and merged with Gaborone and Ngwaketse (Southern), with the capital city, Lobatse, going to Gaborone. Parts of Chobe district annexed by Ngamiland and Ngwato districts.
7. The following table shows the divisions of Botswana, according to various sources, at about this time. Where population figures are not shown, Barolong and Jwaneng are included with Ngwaketse; Okavango is included with Ngamiland; Sowa is included with Central. Some districts may be census districts.

1. 2003: ISO 3166-2 replaced the codes for Chobe (formerly CH) and Ngamiland (NG) with a single code for North-West (NW). In 2006, FIPS allocated a new code for North-West, and retired the old codes for Chobe (BC02) and Ngamiland (BC07).

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Central: Ngwato (Setswana)
2. Ghanzi: Ghantsi (variant)
3. North-East: Bokone-Botlhaba (Setswana)
4. North-West: Bokone-Bophirima (Setswana)
5. South-East: Borwa-Botlhaba (Setswana)
6. Southern: Borwa, Ngwakets, Ngwaketse (Setswana)

The first full release of ISO 3166-2 listed alternate names for three of the districts. Newsletter No. I-5 has dropped those alternate names entirely. They were probably dropped because the maintenance agency discovered that the so-called alternate names were not really synonymous with the specified districts. They were subsets or supersets. These are the alternate names that were dropped.

1. Central: Serowe-Palapye
2. Ngamiland: North-West
3. Southern: Ngwaketse