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Updates: 

I've inserted a discussion of the status of Barlavento and Sotavento under Further subdivisions.

Manuel de Sousa, in the Portuguese Wikipedia, points out that the spelling "Paúl" violates the rules of spelling in Portuguese. (Specifically, you must never place an accent on the letters "i" and "u" when they are preceded by a vowel which does not form a diphthong with them; occur in stressed syllables that are the last or next-to-last in the word; AND they form a syllable with the following "nh", "l", "m", "n", "r", or "z".) However, most standard sources seem to be unaware of the spelling rule. In keeping with the policy of this site to be descriptive rather than prescriptive, I list Paúl as the name of the concelho.

Most sources say that the capital of Sal county is Espargos. I had previously reported that it was Santa Maria, based on the CIA map. The capital of Maio county is Vila do Maio, but an alternate (obsolete?) name for that city is Porto Inglês, which appears in some sources.

Note: Portuguese for council is conselho; for county (specifically, one of the counties into which Cape Verde is divided), concelho. The two words are easy to confuse.

FIPS Publication Change Notice No. 9, affecting FIPS PUB 10-4, was issued on 2004-10-01. It assigned FIPS codes to the five then-newest counties. It also changed the FIPS codes of the old counties from which the new ones were formed. The new codes are shown in the table below. Apparently FIPS has never issued a code for Porto Novo county.

The original ISO 3166-2 standard (1998) had listed only the fourteen counties listed below under Change history, 1971. (They were designated "municipalities".) ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-2, published on 2002-05-21, showed the changes described in the following paragraph. It gave the name of São Miguel as "Calheta de São Miguel". All the additional counties were in Sotavento group.

According to the Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE) and other sources, sometime between 1980 and 1991, Mosteiros, São Domingos, São Filipe, and São Miguel counties were formed, and Fogo county disappeared. Oddly, none of the major reference works mentioned them until 2000, and even then, one of them was still left off the list.

Country overview: 

Short name	CAPE VERDE
ISO code	CV
FIPS code	CV
Language	Portuguese (pt)
Time zone	-1
Capital	Praia

 

Cape Verde had been a Portuguese colony for more than five centuries when it was granted its independence on 1975-07-05.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Kap Verde, Kapverdiske Øer
2. Dutch: Kaapverdië, Republiek Kaapverdië (formal)
3. English: Republic of Cape Verde (formal)
4. Finnish: Kap Verde
5. French: Cap-Vert m
6. German: Kap Verde, Kapverden (Swiss), Kap Verde Inseln fp, Republik f Kap n Verde
7. Icelandic: Grænhöfðaeyjar
8. Italian: Capo m Verde
9. Norwegian: Kapp Verde, Republikken Kapp Verde (formal)
10. Portuguese: Cabo Verde, República f de Cabo m Verde (formal) (n in Portugal)
11. Spanish: Cabo Verde, República f de Cabo m Verde (formal)
12. Swedish: Kap Verde

Origin of name: 

After Cap Vert, Senegal (Portuguese Cabo Verde: green cape)

Primary subdivisions: 

Cape Verde is divided into twenty-two concelhos (counties), also called municípios.

County	HASC	ISO	FIPS	CGN	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital	Group
Boa Vista	CV.BV	BV	CV01	51	5,785	620	239	Sal-Rei	B
Brava	CV.BR	BR	CV02	91	6,241	64	25	Nova Sintra	S
Maio	CV.MA	MA	CV04	61	7,967	269	104	Vila do Maio	S
Mosteiros	CV.MO	MO	CV13	81	9,784	82	32	Mosteiros	S
Paúl	CV.PA	PA	CV05	12	8,691	54	21	Vila das Pombas	B
Porto Novo	CV.PN	PN		13	18,335	558	215	Porto Novo	B
Praia	CV.PC	PR	CV14	74	123,741	94	37	Cidade Velha	S
Ribeira Brava	CV.RB	SN	CV10	31	8,032	343	132	Ribeira Brava	B
Ribeira Grande	CV.RG	RG	CV07	11	21,735	167	64	Ponta do Sol	B
Ribeira Grande de Santiago	CV.RS	PR	CV14	74	9,639	164	63	Praia	S
Sal	CV.SL	SL	CV08	41	19,398	216	83	Espargos	B
Santa Catarina	CV.CT	CA	CV15	72	46,866	213	82	Assomada	S
Santa Catarina do Fogo	CV.CF	SF	CV18	82	4,817			Cova Figueira	S
Santa Cruz	CV.CZ	CR	CV16	73	28,989	110	43	Pedra-Badejo	S
São Domingos	CV.SD	SD	CV17	75	14,230	138	53	São Domingos	S
São Filipe	CV.FP	SF	CV18	82	23,197	394	152	São Filipe	S
São Lourenço dos Órgãos	CV.LO	CR	CV16	73	8,961	39	15	João Teves	S
São Miguel	CV.SM	CS	CV19	76	17,291	91	35	Calheta	S
São Salvador do Mundo	CV.SS	CA	CV15	72	10,560	30	12	Assomada	S
São Vicente	CV.SV	SV	CV11	21	78,176	227	88	Mindelo	B
Tarrafal	CV.TF	TA	CV20	71	22,453	112	43	Tarrafal	S
Tarrafal de São Nicolau	CV.TS	SN	CV10	31	4,908			Tarrafal de São Nicolau	B
22 counties					434,812	3,985	1,539
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: County codes from ISO 3166-2. For full identification in a global context, prefix "CV-" to the code (ex: CV-SL represents Sal). FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. CGN: National Geographic Code. Cape Verde uses four-digit postal codes. The first two digits are the same as the county's CGN. Source: [3]. Population: 2008 projections. Source: [1]. Group: Barlavento (B) or Sotavento (S). See Further subdivisions.

Further subdivisions:

See the Parishes of Cape Verde page.

Barlavento and Sotavento are not administrative divisions, although each has its own Chamber of Commerce. Verdeans sometimes call them regiões (regions), sometimes distritos (districts), but most often just grupos (island groups). ISO 3166-2 calls them districts. I've decided to use "groups", which has the least official resonance. Mindelo is the chief town of Barlavento, and Praia of Sotavento.

Territorial extent: 

1. Smaller islands are usually contained in the nearest county on a larger island.
2. Boa Vista Island corresponds to Boa Vista county.
3. Brava Island corresponds to Brava county (along with Rei and Rombo Islands).
4. Fogo Island corresponds to Mosteiros, Santa Catarina do Fogo, and São Filipe counties.
5. Maio Island corresponds to Maio county.
6. Sal Island corresponds to Sal.
7. Santo Antão Island corresponds to Paúl, Porto Novo, and Ribeira Grande counties.
8. São Nicolau Island corresponds to Ribeira Brava and Tarrafal de São Nicolau counties.
9. São Tiago (or Santiago) Island corresponds to Praia, Ribeira Grande de Santiago, Santa Catarina, Santa Cruz, São Domingos, São Lourenço dos Órgãos, São Miguel, São Salvador do Mundo, and Tarrafal counties.
10. São Vicente Island corresponds to São Vicente (along with uninhabited Santa Luzia Island).

Origins of names: 

1. Barlavento: Portuguese for windward. Prevailing winds are from the northeast, and these islands are to the north.
2. Boa Vista: Portuguese for good view.
3. Brava: Portuguese for wild.
4. Fogo: Portuguese for fire. Island has an active volcano.
5. Maio: Portuguese for May. Island was discovered in May 1460 by António de Noli and Diogo Gomes.
6. Paúl: Portuguese for marsh.
7. Praia: Portuguese for beach.
8. Ribeira Grande: Portuguese for big creek.
9. Sal: Portuguese for salt. There were salt mines there.
10. São Vicente: Island discovered on Saint Vincent's feast day, 1462-01-22.
11. Sotavento: Portuguese for leeward.

Change history: 

1. Note: History is incomplete until 1971.
2. 1712: Capital of Cape Verde Islands moved from Cidade Velha (formerly known as Ribeira Grande) to Praia.
3. ~1894: Paúl county merged with Ribeira Grande, which thereby became the only county on Santo Antão island.
4. 1935: Sal county split from Boa Vista.
5. ~1971: Porto Novo county split from Paúl.
6. 1971: Santa Cruz county split from Praia. At this time, the divisions of Cape Verde were as shown in this table:

County	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Boa Vista	CV.BV	BV	CV01	3,110	620	239	Sal Rei
Brava	CV.BR	BR	CV02	6,610	67	26	Nova Sintra
Fogo	CV.FO	FO	CV03	34,580	476	184	São Filipe
Maio	CV.MA	MA	CV04	4,560	269	104	Porto Inglês
Paúl	CV.PA	PA	CV05	9,080	54	21	Pombas
Porto Novo	CV.PN	PN		13,650	558	215	Porto Novo
Praia	CV.PR	PR	CV06	94,250	396	153	Praia
Ribeira Grande	CV.RG	RG	CV07	22,300	167	64	Ponta Sol
Sal	CV.SL	SL	CV08	8,150	216	83	Santa Maria
Santa Catarina	CV.CA	CA	CV09	48,000	243	94	Assomada
Santa Cruz	CV.CR	CR		27,730	149	58	Pedra Badejo
São Nicolau	CV.SN	SN	CV10	12,630	388	150	Ribeira Brava
São Vicente	CV.SV	SV	CV11	62,710	227	88	Mindelo
Tarrafal	CV.TA	TA	CV12	29,330	203	78	Tarrafal
14 counties				376,690	4,033	1,557
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: County codes from ISO 3166-2: 1998. For full identification in a global context, prefix "CV-" to the code (ex: CV-SL represents Sal). FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Population: 1990 estimates.

1. ~1988: São Domingos county formed by taking Nossa Senhora da Luz and São Nicolau Tolentino parishes from Praia.
2. 1991: Mosteiros county formed by taking Nossa Senhora da Ajuda parish from Fogo county. The remainder of Fogo county renamed São Filipe county.
3. ~1991: São Miguel county (area 91 km.²) formed by taking São Miguel Arcanjo parish from Tarrafal county.
4. 2005-08-03: Five new counties were formed in 2005. Ribeira Grande de Santiago county formed on 2005-07-23 by taking Santíssimo Nome de Jesus and São João Baptista parishes from Praia (former HASC code CV.PI). Santa Catarina do Fogo county formed on 2005-07-25 by taking Santa Catarina parish from São Filipe (CV.SF). São Lourenço dos Órgãos county formed on 2005-07-21 by taking São Lourenço dos Órgãos parish from Santa Cruz (CV.SZ). São Salvador do Mundo county formed on 2005-07-19 by taking São Salvador do Mundo parish from Santa Catarina (CV.SC). Tarrafal de São Nicolau county formed on 2005-08-03 by taking São Francisco parish from São Nicolau (CV.SN). The remainder of São Nicolau county was renamed Ribeira Brava.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Paúl: Paoul (French); Paul (corrected spelling)
2. São Miguel: Calheta de São Miguel (variant)

Population history:

County	1940	1950-12-15	1960-12-15	1970-12-15	1980-06-02	1990-06-23	2000-06-16
Boa Vista	2,779	2,985	3,263	3,569	3,372	3,452	4,193
Brava	8,528	7,937	8,625	7,756	6,985	6,975	6,820
Maio	2,237	1,924	2,680	3,466	4,098	4,969	6,742
Mosteiros						8,331	9,479
Paúl	5,845	5,370	6,024	8,000	7,983	8,121	8,325
Porto Novo	10,366	7,565	10,683	13,750	13,236	14,873	17,239
Praia	18,208	17,179	24,872	39,911	57,748	71,276	106,052
Ribeira Grande	19,766	15,444	17,246	22,873	22,102	20,851	21,560
Sal	1,121	1,838	2,608	5,505	5,826	7,715	14,792
Santa Catarina	26,848	19,428	30,207	41,462	41,012	41,584	49,970
Santa Cruz	13,486	9,568	14,368	21,158	22,995	25,892	32,822
São Domingos						11,526	13,296
São Filipe	23,022	17,582	25,615	29,412	30,978	25,571	27,930
São Miguel						13,787	16,153
São Nicolau	14,846	10,366	13,866	16,308	13,572	13,665	13,536
São Vicente	15,848	19,576	20,705	31,578	41,594	51,277	67,844
Tarrafal	18,840	13,222	19,140	26,251	24,202	11,626	18,059
Totals	181,740	149,984	199,902	270,999	295,703	341,491	434,812
Note: Figures for São Filipe before 1990 actually represent Fogo county.

Sources:

1. [1] Retrieved from Instituto Nacional de Estatística  site on 2008-12-19 (requires free registration).
2. [2] 1990 census data are from the Atlas de Cabo Verde  site, retrieved about 2003.
3. [3] The CGN-CV (Código Geográfico Nacional de Cabo Verde: National Geographic Code of Cape Verde) is defined by the Instituto Nacional de Estatística of Cape Verde. There is a document containing an overall description of the code system, titled "Apresentação Geral" (http://www.ine.cv/Nomenclatura/CGN-CV/APRESENGeral%20CGN-CV.pdf), and another with the actual codes down to parish level, titled "Estrutura" (http://www.ine.cv/Nomenclatura/CGN-CV/ESTRUTURA%20CGN-CV.pdf). Both were retrieved about 2003. There is a seven-digit CGN code for each of 4,526 places in Cape Verde. The first five digits of a code represent the zone in which the place is located. The first three digits represent a parish (freguesia); the first two, a county (concelho); and the first digit alone, one of the nine inhabited islands.