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Updates: 

ISO 3166-2 was modified on 2014-10-29. It now recognizes the regions as primary subdivisions and gives them codes that match GENC. It also changes the names of some provinces, in the same way that GEC Update 13 did. In another modification dated 2014-12-18, it fleshes out the identification of provinces with regions by attributing Distrito Nacional to Ozama region.

"Geopolitical Entities, Names, and Codes, Edition 2" (GENC), a U.S. standard that's supposed to correspond to ISO 3166-2, was issued on 2014-03-31. It gives codes for the regions, and they differ from the GEC codes.

Update 15 to Geopolitical Entities and Codes (GEC, the successor to FIPS 10-4), is dated 2014-03-31. GEC now considers the regions, rather than the provinces, as primary subdivisions.

Update 13 to GEC is dated 2013-09-30. It changes three province names. Bahoruco is going back to Baoruco; the accent is removed from El Seíbo; and the name change of Salcedo to Hermanas Mirabal is shown.

FIPS PUB 10-4 Change Notice 13 was issued on 2008-02-04. The Dominican Republic is affected only by a change of spelling from Baoruco to Bahoruco.

The new provinces of San Jose de Ocoa and Santo Domingo were incorporated into the FIPS standard by FIPS Publication Change Notice No. 10, affecting FIPS PUB 10-4, issued on 2006-03-23. They were incorporated into the ISO standard by the issuance of the second edition of ISO 3166-2, dated 2007-12-15.

With respect to telephone dialing, the Dominican Republic is in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), which means that its international dialing code is 1, followed by the area code. The Dominican Republic originally was in area code 809, but in 2005 it was overlaid with area code 829, and in 2010 further overlaid with 849.

Update I-1 to ISO 3166-2 was published on 2000-06-21. All of the provinces were originally assigned two-letter codes by the ISO secretariat. Those have been replaced by two-digit codes taken from source [1]. This eliminates an error in ISO 3166-2, where the code EP was used for two provinces. Also, the update changed the spelling of one of the provinces' names from El Seibo to El Seybo. Nonetheless, the spelling "El Seibo" is still predominant.

Country overview: 

Short name	DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
ISO code	DO
GEC code	DR
Language	Spanish (es)
Time zone	-4
Capital	Santo Domingo

 

The Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. The boundary between these two countries has remained fairly stable throughout the 20th century. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about their system of government. The Dominican Republic was dominated by Rafael Trujillo from 1930 to 1961. He and his family attempted to impose their names on several geographical features.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Den Dominikanske Republik
2. Dutch: Dominicaanse Republiek
3. Finnish: Dominikaaninen tasavalta
4. French: République f dominicaine
5. German: Dominikanische Republik f
6. Icelandic: Dóminíska lýðveldið
7. Italian: Repubblica f Dominicana
8. Norwegian: Den dominikanske republikk (Bokmål), Den dominikanske republikken (Nynorsk)
9. Portuguese: República f Dominicana
10. Russian: Доминиканская Республика
11. Spanish: República f Dominicana
12. Swedish: Dominikanska republiken
13. Turkish: Dominik Cumhuriyeti

Origin of name: 

from Santo Domingo, the capital, which was named by Columbus in 1496 in honor of his father's patron saint.

Primary subdivisions: 

The Dominican Republic is divided into 31 provinces and one district.

Province	HASC	ISO	GEC	Pc	Rg	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Azua	DO.AZ	02	DR01	71	05	214,311	2,688	1,038	Azua (de Compostela)
Bahoruco	DO.BR	03	DR02	82	06	97,313	1,244	480	Neiba
Barahona	DO.BH	04	DR03	81	06	187,105	1,647	636	(Santa Cruz de) Barahona
Dajabón	DO.DA	05	DR04	63	04	63,955	1,004	388	Dajabón
Distrito Nacional	DO.NC	01	DR34	10	10	965,040	91	35	Santo Domingo (de Guzmán)
Duarte	DO.DU	06	DR06	31	03	289,574	1,640	633	San Francisco de Macorís
Elías Piña	DO.EP	07	DR11	73	07	63,029	1,397	539	Comendador
El Seibo	DO.SE	08	DR28	24	08	87,680	1,775	685	(Santa Cruz de) El Seibo
Espaillat	DO.ES	09	DR08	56	01	231,938	825	319	Moca
Hato Mayor	DO.HM	30	DR29	25	09	85,017	1,324	511	Hato Mayor (del Rey)
Hermanas Mirabal	DO.SC	19	DR19	34	03	92,193	430	166	Salcedo
Independencia	DO.IN	10	DR09	83	06	52,589	1,754	677	Jimaní
La Altagracia	DO.AL	11	DR10	23	08	273,210	3,001	1,159	(Salvaleón de) Higüey
La Romana	DO.RO	12	DR12	22	08	245,433	656	253	La Romana
La Vega	DO.VE	13	DR30	41	02	394,205	2,274	878	(Concepción de) La Vega
María Trinidad Sánchez	DO.MT	14	DR14	33	03	140,925	1,212	468	(Trinidad Sánchez) Nagua
Monseñor Nouel	DO.MN	28	DR31	42	02	165,224	992	383	Bonao
Monte Cristi	DO.MC	15	DR15	62	04	109,607	1,886	728	(San Fernando de) Monte Cristi
Monte Plata	DO.MP	29	DR32	92	09	185,956	2,613	1,009	Monte Plata
Pedernales	DO.PN	16	DR16	84	06	31,587	2,018	779	Pedernales
Peravia	DO.PV	17	DR35	94	05	184,344	785	303	Baní
Puerto Plata	DO.PP	18	DR18	57	01	321,597	819	316	(San Felipe de) Puerto Plata
Samaná	DO.SM	20	DR20	32	03	101,494	845	326	(Santa Bárbara de) Samaná
Sánchez Ramírez	DO.SZ	24	DR21	43	02	151,392	1,191	460	Cotuí
San Cristóbal	DO.CR	21	DR33	91	05	569,930	1,240	479	San Cristóbal
San José de Ocoa	DO.JO	31	DR36	93	05	59,544	853	329	San José de Ocoa
San Juan	DO.JU	22	DR23	72	07	232,333	3,360	1,297	San Juan (de la Maguana)
San Pedro de Macorís	DO.PM	23	DR24	21	09	290,458	1,255	484	San Pedro de Macorís
Santiago	DO.ST	25	DR25	51	01	963,422	2,809	1,084	Santiago (de los Caballeros)
Santiago Rodríguez	DO.SR	26	DR26	64	04	57,476	1,152	445	(San Ignacio de) Sabaneta
Santo Domingo	DO.SD	32	DR37	107	10	2,374,370	1,302	503	Santo Domingo Este
Valverde	DO.VA	27	DR27	61	04	163,030	809	312	Mao
32 divisions						9,445,281	46,888	18,104
Province: except for Distrito Nacional, which is a district. HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes (based on the original ISO 3166-2 codes). ISO: codes from ISO 3166-2, same as ONE province codes. GEC: codes from GEC. Pc: Beginning of range of postal codes (see below). Rg: ONE region code (see below). Population: 2010-12-01 census. Capital: When part of the name of a capital is in parentheses, that means that the capital has a short, informal name, and a formal name including the parenthetical part. The shorter form is commonly used.

Postal codes: 

In 2005, the Dominican Republic switched from four-digit to five-digit postal codes. In Distrito Nacional (10000-10699) and Santo Domingo (10700-11999), hundreds of codes have been assigned; in the rest of the provinces, the last three digits are always 000. The first digit determines a region, as defined by the Instituto Postal Dominicano. For details, see the table below.

Further subdivisions:

See the Municipalities of the Dominican Republic page.

The provinces are subdivided into municipios (municipalities). There were 61 of them in 1935, rising to 97 in 1993, and 161 in 2002, but falling to 155 in 2007. The municipalities are further subdivided into 380 distritos (districts), which are classified as either distritos cabeceras or distritos municipales. The Oficina Nacional de Estadística (ONE) has created a hierarchical system of codes in the format "nn nn nn nn nn nnn nn", where each "n" is a digit. The first two digits represent the region, the first four represent the province, the first six represent a municipality, the first eight a municipal district, the first ten a sección, the first thirteen a barrio or paraje, and the full set a sub-barrio. Trailing digits are all 0's for the higher-level divisions. See source [10] for details.

The 2010 census report divides the country into ten regions. The postal regions are a bit different. In the table below, the Postal column gives the names of the postal regions and the first digit of the corresponding postal codes. The correspondence isn't exact, however. Azua is in Valdesia census region but has a postal code for El Valle, and Monte Plata is in Higuamo census region but has a postal code for Valdesia.

The regions have apparently changed over the years. The 2002 census report has regions that match the postal regions more exactly. It calls them regiones de desarrollo (development regions). The names are the same as those of the postal regions, except that it uses "Nordeste" instead of "Norte". Source [6] has a still earlier version of the system, dated 1990. In it, the Cibaos are partitioned differently, Higuamo is split between Valdesia and Yuma, and Ozama is included in Valdesia.

Region	ONE	ISO	GEC	MR	Postal	Population	Capital
Cibao Nordeste	03	33	DR38	N	3 Norte	624,186	San Francisco de Macorís
Cibao Noroeste	04	34	DR39	N	6 Noroeste	394,068	Mao
Cibao Norte	01	35	DR40	N	5 Norcentral	1,516,957	Santiago
Cibao Sur	02	36	DR41	N	4 Cibao Central	710,821	La Vega
El Valle	07	37	DR42	O	7 El Valle	295,362	San Juan de la Maguana
Enriquillo	06	38	DR43	O	8 Enriquillo	368,594	Barahona
Higuamo	09	39	DR44	E	2 Este	561,431	San Pedro de Macorís
Ozama	10	40	DR45	E	1 Distrito Nacional	3,339,410	Santo Domingo Este
Valdesia	05	41	DR46	O	9 Valdesia	1,028,129	San Cristóbal
Yuma	08	42	DR47	E	2 Este	606,323	La Romana
ONE: Region code from Oficina Nacional de Estadística. ISO: codes from ISO 3166-2. GEC: Geopolitical Entities and Codes. MR: Macroregion code (Norte, surOeste, surEste). Postal: Postal region. Population: 2010-12-01 census.

Territorial extent: 

1. Independencia contains most of Lago Enriquilla, including all of Isla Cabritos.
2. La Altagracia includes Isla Saona.
3. La Romana includes Isla Catalina.
4. Pedernales includes Isla Beata and Cayo los Frailes.

The UN LOCODE page  for Dominican Republic 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. Azua: native word for Spanish montuna, which can mean either mountainous or hard to tame
2. Bahoruco: Taino name for the Yaque del Sur River
3. Distrito Nacional: = national district
4. Duarte: named for Juan Pablo Duarte, 19th-century revolutionary
5. Elías Piña: named for Colonel Elías Piña, hero of the wars of independence
6. Espaillat: named for Ulises Francisco Espaillat (1823-1878), 19th-century author and governor
7. Hato Mayor: = greater cattle-raising district
8. Hermanas Mirabal: named for the Mirabal sisters (Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa), martyred for their opposition to Rafael Trujillo.
9. La Altagracia: the brothers Alonso and Antonio de Trejo arrived from Spain in the early 16th century with a painting of Our Lady of La Altagracia. Miracles are attributed to it.
10. Monseñor Nouel: named for a president of the republic, Monseñor Dr. Adolfo Alejandro Nouel y Bobadilla
11. María Trinidad Sánchez: named for a female soldier in the wars of independence
12. Pedernales: = flints
13. Puerto Plata: = silver port
14. Sánchez Ramírez: named for Brigadier Juan Sánchez Ramírez, hero of the battle of Palo Incado (1808)
15. San Pedro de Macorís: macorís is a native word for "speaker of a foreign language"
16. Santiago Rodríguez: named for one of the founders of the city (founded in 1844)
17. Valverde: named for General José Desiderio Valverde, 19th-century governor

Change history: 

1. The early history up to about 1940 is incomplete. Some of it comes from source [10], which occasionally contradicts itself.
2. 1865-11-14: Under a new Constitution, the Dominican Republic was divided into five provincias (Compostela de Azua, Concepción de la Vega, Santa Cruz de El Seibo, Santiago de los Caballeros, and Santo Domingo de Guzmán) and two distritos marítimos (maritime districts) (Puerto Plata and Samaná). Each of the seven divisions was subdivided into comunes (municipalities).
3. 1880-05-18: Constitutional Law 1859 reorganized the country into five provinces.
4. 1882-09-10: San Pedro de Macorís became maritime district.
5. 1885-05-29: Espaillat province created by taking Matanzas, Moca, San Antonio de Yuna, and San Francisco de Macorís municipalities and Juana Núñez canton from La Vega.
6. 1896-06-05: San Francisco de Macorís municipality split from Espaillat province to become Pacificador district.
7. 1907-09-09: Law 4803 divided the country into twelve provinces: Azua, Barahona, El Seibo, Espaillat, La Vega, Monte Cristi, Pacificador, Puerto Plata, Samaná, San Pedro de Macorís, Santiago, and Santo Domingo. Maritime districts and cantons were eliminated and replaced by provinces and municipalities.
8. 1925: Name of Pacificador province changed to Duarte.
9. 1929: Dominican Republic ceded five western municipalities to Haiti.
10. 1932-11-11: Trujillo province formed by taking Baní, Bonao, La Victoria, Monte Plata, San Cristóbal. San José de Ocoa, Villa Mella, and Yamasá municipalities.
11. 1934-09-07: Distrito Nacional created by Law 745.
12. By 1935, El Seibo and Monte Cristi were being called Seibo and Montecristi, respectively.
13. 1936: Name of national capital changed from Santo Domingo to Ciudad Trujillo, after the dictator Rafael Trujillo, who came to power in 1930. Name of Distrito Nacional changed to Distrito de Santo Domingo.
14. 1936: Elías Piña municipality transferred from Azua province to Benefactor (San Juan).
15. 1938-04-19: Benefactor province (modern San Juan) split from Azua.
16. 1938-06-20: Dajabón province split from Montecristi; its name changed to Libertador in 1938-07. Monte Plata province split from Trujillo; its name changed to Monseñor Meriño on 1938-08-06.
17. 1939: Part of Monseñor de Meriño province merged with Trujillo, and the rest merged with Distrito de Santo Domingo.
18. 1942: San Rafael province formed by taking Elías Piña and Bánica municipalities from Benefactor province.
19. 1943-03-18: Bahoruco province split from Azua.
20. 1944-10-09: Monseñor Meriño province merged with Trujillo.
21. 1944-11-23: Baní province formed from part of Trujillo province together with Nizao municipal district. Its name changed to José Trujillo Valdez on 1944-12-01.
23. 1948-12-23: Jimaní province formed by taking Jimaní municipal district and La Descubierta municipality from Bahoruco. Name changed to Independencia on 1949-05-13.
24. 1948-12-29: Santiago Rodríguez province split from Monte Cristi. It had previously been a municipality, whose name had been changed from Sabaneta to Santiago Rodríguez on 1936-10-22.
25. 1952-03-03: Salcedo province formed by taking Salcedo and Tenares municipalities from Espaillat. Sánchez Ramírez province split from Duarte.
26. 1956: Pedro Santana municipality and Hondo Valle municipal district annexed to San Rafael province.
27. 1957: Name of Distrito de Santo Domingo restored to Distrito Nacional.
28. 1957-12-17: Pedernales province formed by taking Oviedo and Pedernales municipalities from Barahona.
29. 1958: Julia Molina province formed by taking Julia Molina and Cabrera municipalities and Río San Juan municipal district from Samaná. Name changed to María Trinidad Sánchez on 1961-11-29.
30. 1959-01-01: Valverde province split from Santiago.
31. 1961: Rafael Trujillo assassinated on 1961-05-30. Name of national capital restored to Santo Domingo; name of Libertador province changed to Dajabón.
32. 1961-08-11: La Altagracia province formed by taking Higüey and San Rafael del Yuma municipalities from El Seibo.
33. 1961-11-25: Name of Benefactor province changed to San Juan.
34. 1961-11-29: Name of José Trujillo Valdez province changed to Peravia; name of Trujillo province changed to San Cristóbal.
35. 1965: Name of San Rafael province changed to La Estrelleta.
36. 1967-05-12: Name of capital of Valverde changed from Valverde to Mao.
37. ~1968: La Romana province split from La Altagracia.
38. 1972: Name of La Estrelleta province changed to Elías Piña, and name of its capital changed from Elías Piña back to Comendador.
39. ~1979: Name of capital of Santiago Rodríguez province changed from Santiago Rodríguez to Sabaneta (restoring the name previously changed in 1936).
40. 1982-08-20: Monte Plata province formed by taking Bayaguana, Monte Plata, Sabana Grande de Boyá, and Yamasá municipalities (roughly the same as the former Monseñor Meriño province) from San Cristóbal.
41. 1982-09-22: Monseñor Nouel province formed by taking Monseñor Nouel municipality and Maimón and Piedra Blanca municipal districts from La Vega (former FIPS code DR13).
42. 1984-03-12: Hato Mayor province formed by taking El Valle, Hato Mayor, and Sabana de la Mar municipalities from El Seibo (former FIPS code DR07).
43. 2000-09-01: Decree 685-00, article 46, defined development regions, each composed of one or more provinces.
44. 2000-09-06: San José de Ocoa province formed by taking the municipios of Rancho Arriba, Sabana Larga, and San José de Ocoa from Peravia (former codes DO.PR, DR17).
45. 2001-10-16: Santo Domingo province split from Distrito Nacional (former HASC code DO.DN, FIPS code DR05).
46. 2004-07-30: Decree 710-04 modified the development regions established in 2000.
47. 2007-12-19: Name of Salcedo province changed to Hermanas Mirabal.

Other names of subdivisions: 

Some sources, including [9], spell Higuamo "Higüamo." In general Spanish usage, the diaeresis indicates that a "u" is not silent, but pronounced more or less like "w" in English. Without a diaeresis, "u" is only silent when it is preceded by "g" and followed by "e" or "i"; in those cases, its function is to harden the "g." Therefore, the diaeresis should never be needed between "g" and "a"; in that environment, the "u" would be pronounced anyway.

1. Bahoruco: Baoruco (variant)
2. Dajabón: Libertador (obsolete)
3. Distrito Nacional: Santo Domingo (obsolete)
4. Elías Piña: La Estrelleta, San Rafael (obsolete)
5. El Seibo: El Seybo (variant); Seibo (obsolete)
6. Hato Mayor: Hato Mayor del Rey (variant)
7. Hermanas Mirabal: Salcedo (obsolete)
8. María Trinidad Sánchez: Trinidad Sánchez Nagua (obsolete)
9. Peravia: José Trujillo Valdez (obsolete)
10. San Cristóbal: Trujillo (obsolete)
11. San Juan: Benefactor (obsolete); San Juan de la Maguana (variant)
12. Ozama: Metropolitana (variant)

Population history:

Province	1935-05-13	1950-08-06	1960-08-07	1970-01-09	1981-12-12	1993-09-24	2002-10-18	2010-12-01
Azua	158,913	50,608	75,147	91,511	140,914	199,684	208,857	214,311
Bahoruco		39,858	52,343	66,572	78,042	105,206	91,480	97,313
Barahona	95,349	62,166	79,880	112,914	141,313	164,835	179,239	187,105
Dajabón		26,470	40,822	50,780	54,675	68,606	62,046	63,955
Distrito Nacional	93,986	239,464	462,192	817,067	1,540,786	2,193,046	913,540	965,040
Duarte	120,936	164,400	161,326	200,813	227,798	281,879	283,805	289,574
Elías Piña		33,013	43,266	53,228	61,895	64,641	63,879	63,029
El Seibo	134,847	97,710	115,604	132,795	151,227	96,770	89,261	87,680
Espaillat	81,396	154,829	117,126	139,579	163,860	202,376	225,091	231,938
Hato Mayor						80,074	87,631	85,017
Hermanas Mirabal			68,656	89,773	94,173	101,810	96,356	92,193
Independencia		20,801	27,475	32,580	35,908	39,541	50,833	52,589
La Altagracia		74,087	104,987	87,180	96,009	115,685	182,020	273,210
La Romana				56,995	107,021	166,550	219,812	245,433
La Vega	166,353	195,424	248,069	293,694	389,950	344,721	385,101	394,205
María Trinidad Sánchez			85,185	97,043	99,731	124,957	135,727	140,925
Monseñor Nouel						149,318	167,618	165,224
Monte Cristi	87,022	82,588	59,240	69,276	83,124	95,705	111,014	109,607
Monte Plata						167,148	180,376	185,956
Pedernales			8,652	12,547	15,493	18,054	21,207	31,587
Peravia		81,911	106,736	127,587	169,067	201,851	169,865	184,344
Puerto Plata	103,043	133,652	163,896	185,800	201,893	261,485	312,706	321,597
Samaná	24,645	83,263	44,592	53,893	64,537	75,253	91,875	101,494
Sánchez Ramírez			93,498	106,177	119,866	163,166	151,179	151,392
San Cristóbal	159,117	164,674	249,776	324,395	444,948	420,820	532,880	569,930
San José de Ocoa							62,368	59,544
San Juan		106,802	148,206	191,065	231,509	252,637	241,105	232,333
San Pedro de Macorís	59,357	64,205	68,953	105,490	147,777	212,368	301,744	290,458
Santiago	194,453	259,947	287,941	386,269	533,102	710,803	908,250	963,422
Santiago Rodríguez			40,399	49,958	56,144	62,144	59,629	57,476
Santo Domingo							1,817,754	2,374,370
Valverde			59,558	76,608	94,579	152,257	158,293	163,030
Total	1,479,417	2,135,872	3,013,525	4,011,589	5,545,341	7,293,390	8,562,541	9,445,281

 

The Dominican Republic has had nine modern censuses, starting with the census of 1920-12-24. Censuses of 1935 and 1960: source [2]. Census of 1950: source [7]. 1981 populations: source [3]. 1993, 2002 populations: source [4]. 2010 populations: source [8].

Sources: 

1. [1] "Listado de Códigos por Provincias, Municipios y Distritos Municipales del País 1995" (List of Codes by Provinces, Municipalities and Municipal Districts of the Country 1995), ONE. The same codes, as well as the municipality and district codes, were found by going to the ONE codes page at http://www.one.gob.do/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=113/ (dead link, retrieved 2008-01-13) and downloading "Tabula de Municipios y Distritos Municipales al 2007 DC." Now a similar table can be found by going to ONE  and downloading "División Territorial 2008" (retrieved 2012-08-11).
2. [2] Encyclopædia Britannica World Atlas (1951, 1957, 1964 editions).
3. [3] "Desarrollo Humano en la República Dominicana: El Estado de los Indicadores Relevantes." http://portal.onu.org.do/contenidos/archivos/Cap1.pdf (dead link, retrieved 2007-06).
4. [4] "Resultados Definitivos, VIII Censo Nacional de Población y Vivienda 2002, Vol I," ONE. http://www.one.gov.do/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=80&Itemid=26 (dead link, retrieved 2007-06).
5. [5] "República Dominicana, Album Estadístico Gráfico MCMXLIV, Año de Centenario". Dirección General de Estadística, Ciudad Trujillo, 1944-02-27.
6. [6] Library of Congress country study  (retrieved 1999).
7. [7] Demographic Yearbook , 7th Ed. Statistical Office of the United Nations, New York, 1955 (retrieved 2011-08-20).
8. [8] Informe Básico , IX Censo Nacional de Población y Vivienda 2010. ONE, Santo Domingo, 2012-05-05 (retrieved 2012-08-11).
9. [9] Decreto No. 710-04  (retrieved 2014-09-30).
10. [10] División Territorial 2012  (retrieved 2014-10-01).