Regions of Guyana

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Country overview: 

Short nameGUYANA
ISO codeGY
FIPS codeGY
LanguageEnglish (en)
Time zone-4
CapitalGeorgetown

 

At the beginning of the 20th century, this territory was the British colony of British Guiana. It was locked in a dispute with Venezuela over possession of more than half of its area, the part to the west of the Essequibo River. The boundary was settled in 1904 at approximately its current position, although both Venezuela and Surinam still have claims. The country became independent on 1966-05-26, changing its name to Guyana at the same time.

Other names of country: 

  1. Danish: Guyana, Britisk Guyana (obsolete)
  2. Dutch: Guyana, Coöperatieve Republiek Guyana (formal)
  3. English: Co-operative Republic of Guyana (formal), British Guiana (obsolete)
  4. Finnish: Guyana
  5. French: Guyana m
  6. German: Guyana n
  7. Icelandic: Gvæjana
  8. Italian: Guyana f
  9. Norwegian: Den kooperative republikk Guyana (formal) (Bokmål), Den kooperative republikken Guyana (formal) (Nynorsk), Guyana
  10. Portuguese: Guiana, República f Co-operativa da Guiana f (formal)
  11. Russian: Гвиана (obsolete), Кооперативная Республика Гайана (formal)
  12. Spanish: Guyana, República f Cooperativa de Guyana f (formal), Guayana Inglesa (obsolete)
  13. Swedish: Guyana
  14. Turkish: Guyana Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

from native word guiana: land of waters, or possibly from native word for respectable.

Primary subdivisions: 

Guyana is divided into 10 administrative regions.

RegionHASCCenFIPSPopulationArea(km.²)Area(mi.²)CapitalFormerly
Barima-WainiGY.BA1GY1024,27520,3397,853MabarumaNorth West
Cuyuni-MazaruniGY.CU7GY1117,59747,21318,229BarticaMazaruni-Potaro (most)
Demerara-MahaicaGY.DE4GY12310,3202,233862ParadiseEDem (part), WDem (part)
East Berbice-CorentyneGY.EB6GY13123,69536,25513,998New AmsterdamEBer (most), Rupununi (part)
Essequibo Islands-West DemeraraGY.ES3GY14103,0613,7551,450Vreed en HoopEssIs (most), WDem (part)
Mahaica-BerbiceGY.MA5GY1552,4284,1701,610Fort WellingtonWBer, EBer (part), WBer (part)
Pomeroon-SupenaamGY.PM2GY1649,2536,1952,392Anna ReginaEss (most), EssIs (part), NW (part)
Potaro-SiparuniGY.PT8GY1710,09520,0527,742MahdiaMazP (part), Rupununi (part)
Upper Demerara-BerbiceGY.UD10GY1841,11217,0816,595LindenWDem (most); EBer, MazP, Rup (parts)
Upper Takutu-Upper EssequiboGY.UT9GY1919,38757,79022,313LethemRupununi (part)
10 regions751,223215,08383,044
  • HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. If periods are
    replaced by hyphens, these are the same as the region codes from
    the standard ISO 3166-2.
  • Cen: Region numbers, as used by the census.
  • FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4.
  • Population: 2002-09-15 census
  • Formerly: shows the relationship between these regions and the administrative districts of 1958-70. I hope
    the abbreviations will be self-explanatory.

Further subdivisions:

See the Councils of Guyana page.

Territorial extent: 

Essequibo Islands-West Demerara includes islands in the mouth of the Essequibo River, such as Leguan and Wakenaam Islands.

The capital, Georgetown, is in Demerara-Mahaica region.

The UN LOCODE page  for Guyana 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: 

The following are rivers of Guyana: Barima, Berbice, Courantyne, Cuyuni, Demerara, Essequibo, Mahaica, Mazaruni, Pomeroon, Potaro, Rupununi, Siparuni, Takutu, and Waini.

Change history: 

In the colonial period, by an ordinance of 1838, British Guiana was divided into three counties, as shown here. (Essequibo corresponds approximately to the area in dispute with Venezuela.)

CountyPopulationArea (km.²)
Berbice96,62340,077
Demerara220,63912,432
Essequibo58,439156,749
3 counties375,701209,258
  • Population: 1946-04-09 census (source [5])

 

~1958: British Guiana reorganized into nine administrative districts:

DistrictFIPSPop-1960Pop-1970CapitalFormerly
East BerbiceGY01115,511132,468New AmsterdamBerbice
East DemeraraGY02256,908337,991EnmoreDemerara
EssequiboGY0329,72957,180SuddieEssequibo
Essequibo IslandsGY0415,728EnterpriseEssequibo
Mazaruni-PotaroGY0512,02912,682BarticaEssequibo
North WestGY0612,80916,269MabarumaEssequibo
RupununiGY0710,03114,192LethemEssequibo, Berbice, tiny part of Demerara
West BerbiceGY0826,52450,757Fort WellingtonBerbice
West DemeraraGY0981,06178,309Vreed en HoopDemerara
Total560,330699,848
  • Pop-1960: 1960-04-07 census
  • Pop-1970: 1970-04-07 census (Source [4])
  • Formerly: county or counties from which this district was formed

 

~1971: Guyana reorganized into six districts:

DistrictFIPSCapitalFormerly
East Berbice-CorentyneGY01New AmsterdamEBer (most), Rup (part)
East Demerara-West Coast BerbiceGY02Mahaicony VillageEDem, WBer, EBer (part), MazP (part), WDem (most)
Mazaruni-PotaroGY05Matthews RidgeMazP (most)
North WestGY06MabarumaNorth West
RupununiGY07LethemRup (most)
West Demerara-Essequibo CoastGY09Anna ReginaEss, EssIs, WDem (part)

 

1980: Guyana reorganized into 10 administrative regions, as listed in the main table.

Population history:

Region1980-05-121991-05-122002-09-15
Barima-Waini18,32918,42824,275
Cuyuni-Mazaruni14,39014,79017,597
Demerara-Mahaica317,475296,924310,320
East Berbice-Corentyne152,386142,541123,695
Essequibo Islands-West Demerara104,75095,975103,061
Mahaica-Berbice53,89851,28052,428
Pomeroon-Supenaam42,34143,45549,253
Potaro-Siparuni4,4855,61510,095
Upper Demerara-Berbice38,64139,60841,112
Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo12,87315,05719,387
Total759,567723,673751,223

Sources: 

  1. [1] Library of Congress country study  (retrieved 1999).
  2. [2] University of Laval  web page (retrieved 2004-11-13).
  3. [3] Census 2002, Bureau of Statistics (Guyana) (http://www.statisticsguyana.gov.gy/cen02.html, dead link, retrieved 2007-08-25).
  4. [4] 1979 Demographic Yearbook , 31st Ed. Statistical Office, United Nations, New York, 1980 (retrieved 2011-12-28). Source [2] had populations rounded to the nearest 100. The population figures in the Demographic Yearbook matched them very well, except that East Demarara was split into East Demerara district and the municipality of Georgetown, and West Berbice was split into West Berbice district and the municipality of New Amsterdam.
  5. [5] Encyclopædia Britannica World Atlas, 1951 edition.
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