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Updates: 

The Statistical Yearbook of the Congo 2004 (source [2]) says that under Law No. 10-2003 (2003-02-06), the Congo Republic consists of six communes and twelve departments. The table which follows makes it clear that the six communes are subdivisions of some of the departments. In two cases, Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire, the communes are co-extensive with their departments. The difference between this and the prior situation is that Pointe-Noire commune and department were split from Kouilou department. The French Wikipedia article (source [3]) was updated on 2007-10-02, changing the number of subdivisions from 10 regions to 12 departments, and reclassifying Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire from urban communes to departments. The more specific article "Subdivisions de la République du Congo" hasn't been updated yet. With Pointe-Noire no longer in Kouilo department, the capital of the latter may be Hinda or Loango, depending on whom you believe. Source [2] says Hinda; most other Internet sources say Loango, but they're probably copying from the same one source.

The government of the Congo Republic has invalidated the results of the 1996 census, because some files and surveys were destroyed by civil war in 1997-99. The 2007-04-28 census revealed a total population of 3,695,579. I haven't found a breakdown into departments yet.

Cuvette-Ouest department was created by Law 002/95 of 1995-02-18. It is divided into Etoumbi, Ewo, Kéllé, Mbama, Mbomo, and Okoyo districts. It is said to have a population of over 60,000 as of 2004, and an area of about 26,000 km.². A different source says that the area of Cuvette is 41,800 km.², and of Cuvette-Ouest, 27,200 km.²; this disagrees with the figure formerly given for the combined region, 74,850 km.².

Cuvette-Ouest was listed in both versions of international standard ISO 3166-2, starting with the draft standard which was distributed in late 1996. FIPS Publication Change Notice No. 10, affecting FIPS PUB 10-4, was issued on 2006-03-23. It assigns a new FIPS code to Cuvette-Ouest and changes the code for Cuvette, from which it was split.

Country overview: 

Short name	REPUBLIC OF CONGO
ISO code	CG
FIPS code	CF
Languages	French (fr), Lingala (ln), Monokutuba
Time zone	+1
Capital	Brazzaville

 

Congo was one of the territories of French Equatorial Africa until 1960, under the name Moyen Congo. (For further details, see Central African Republic.) It gained independence on 1960-08-15 and took the name République du Congo (Republic of Congo). There was already a République du Congo across the river from it. Most people distinguished the two countries by calling them Congo-Léopoldville and Congo-Brazzaville, according to their capitals. In 1970-01, this country's name was changed to People's Republic of Congo, but the change was later reversed.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Congo brazzaville, Republikken Congo
2. Dutch: Kongo, Congo-Brazzaville, Republiek Congo (formal)
3. English: Congo-Brazzaville (informal), Middle Congo (obsolete)
4. Finnish: Kongo, Brazzavillen Kongo, Kongon tasavalta
5. French: Congo, République f du Congo m, Moyen Congo (obsolete)
6. German: Kongo, Republik f Kongo m
7. Icelandic: Kongó
8. Italian: Repubblica f del Congo m
9. Norwegian: Kongo, Kongo-Brazzaville, Republikken Kongo (formal)
10. Portuguese: República f do Congo m
11. Spanish: Congo, República f del Congo m (formal)
12. Swedish: Kongo (Brazzaville)

Origin of name: 

from the Congo river, which came from the ethnic name Kikongo

Primary subdivisions: 

Republic of Congo is divided into twelve départements (formerly called régions), of which two are also communes: Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire.

Department	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Pop-1996	Pop-1984	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Bouenza	CG.BO	11	CF01	236,566	194,977	12,266	4,736	Madingou
Brazzaville	CG.BR	BZV	CF12	856,410	595,102	100	39	Brazzaville
Cuvette	CG.CU	8	CF13	112,946	133,144	74,850	28,900	Owando
Cuvette-Ouest	CG.CO	15	CF14	49,422				Ewo
Kouilou	CG.KL	5	CF04	532,179	373,608	13,644	5,268	Hinda
Lékoumou	CG.LE	2	CF05	75,734	68,301	20,950	8,089	Sibiti
Likouala	CG.LI	7	CF06	66,252	48,993	66,044	25,500	Impfondo
Niari	CG.NI	9	CF07	199,988	159,084	25,940	10,015	Dolisie
Plateaux	CG.PL	14	CF08	139,371	108,802	38,400	14,826	Djambala
Pointe-Noire	CG.PN					50	19	Pointe-Noire
Pool	CG.PO	12	CF11	265,180	180,051	33,955	13,110	Kinkala
Sangha	CG.SA	13	CF10	57,223	46,367	55,800	21,545	Ouesso
12 divisions				2,591,271	1,912,429	341,999	132,047
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO standard 3166-2, issued December 15, 1998. For full identification in a global context, prefix "CG-" to the code (ex: CG-12 represents Pool). FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4, including changes published in Change Notice 2, dated 1999-03-01. Pop-1996: 1996-06-06 census. Pointe-Noire included in Kouilou. Pop-1984: 1984-12-22 census. Cuvette-Ouest included in Cuvette. Area: Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire are estimates.

Further subdivisions:

See the Districts of the Republic of Congo page.

The departments are subdivided into districts, which are further subdivided into communes.

Origins of names: 

1. Brazzaville: Named for Count Pietro Paolo Savorgnan di Brazza (1852-1905), the city's founder
2. Cuvette: French cuvette: basin (in either the hydrological or utensil sense)
3. Plateaux: French for plateaus
4. Pool: For Stanley Pool, an enlargement in the Congo River

Change history: 

According to source [4], the divisions of the Congo Republic immediately after independence were twelve prefectures and one autonomous sub-prefecture, as shown in this table.

Prefecture	Population	Capital
Alima	53,218	Boundji
Bouanza-Louessé	52,065	Sibiti
Djoué	168,336	Brazzaville
Kouilou	97,061	Pointe-Noire
Léfini	59,165	Djanbala
Likouala	27,578	Impfondo
Likouala-Mossaka	48,457	Fort-Rousset
Mossaka	20,080
Niari	40,025	Dolisie
Niari-Bouenza	88,598	Madingou
Nyanga-Louessé	59,326	Mossendjo
Pool	117,957	Kinkala
Sangha	32,818	Ouesso
13 divisions	864,679
Prefecture: except Mossaka, which is an autonomous sub-prefecture Population: 1962 estimate

1. 1967: Congo (Brazzaville) reorganized from fifteen prefectures into 9 regions and one capital district. The old prefectures included Alima, Équateur, and Likouala-Mossaka, which merged to form Cuvette region, according to source [5].
2. 1977: Capital of Cuvette renamed from Fort-Rousset to Owando.
3. ~1980: Capital of Niari renamed from Dolisie to Loubomo.
4. 1980: Brazzaville commune split from Pool (former FIPS code: CF09).
5. 1995-02-18: Cuvette-Ouest region split from Cuvette (former FIPS code: CF03).
6. ~2000: Capital of Niari renamed from Loubomo to Dolisie.
7. 2002-01-20: New constitution (source [1]) declares that the local collectivities are départements (departments) and communes. Apparently Brazzaville is both a department and a commune.
8. 2003-02-06: Pointe-Noire department split from Kouilou department (former HASC code: CG.KO; former capital Pointe-Noire).

Sources:

1. [1] Constitution  of 2002, Title XVI, Article 174 (in French; retrieved 2009-06-06).
2. [2] Annuaire statistique du Congo 2004 , dated 2006-11 (pp. 17-20, in French, retrieved 2009-06-06).
3. [3] Wikipedia article  (retrieved 2009-06-06).
4. [4] Encyclopædia Britannica World Atlas, 1964 edition.
5. [5] Thesis by Raoul Goyendzi (retrieved 2004-06-30 from http://theses.univ-lyon2.fr/Theses2001/goyendzi_r/these_body.html)