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Updates: 

New proposed NUTS codes for Lithuania were issued on 2004-09-15. I have updated the table to show them.

I added populations and areas from the Statistics Lithuania  Website.

Change Notice 7 to FIPS PUB 10-4 is dated 2002-01-10. In 1990, Lithuania was reorganized into ten apskritis (counties). In 1994, the country was reorganized again into 56 towns and regions. These 56 divisions ostensibly supersede the counties, but the Statistics Department still reports data at both levels. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, FIPS initially listed Lithuania with only one division. Later, it reported 55 of the 56 towns and regions. As a result of Change Notice 7, FIPS now lists the ten counties of 1990. ISO 3166-2 has reported only those ten counties from the very start (1996).

The book gives two-letter abbreviations for the towns and regions. I have assigned HASC codes to the counties so that they won't conflict with the town and region codes.

Erratum: In "Administrative Divisions of Countries", page 222, two letters were transposed in one of the region names. Ladzijai should be Lazdijai.

Country overview: 

Short name	LITHUANIA
ISO code	LT
FIPS code	LH
Language	Lithuanian (lt)
Time zone	+2 ~
Capital	Vilnius

 

The territory constituting modern Lithuania was almost entirely contained in the Russian Empire in 1900. On 1918-02-16, Lithuania declared its independence. It was forced to cede the Memelland along the coast to Germany on 1939-03-22. It was occupied by the army of the Soviet Union in 1940, and became a constituent republic of the U.S.S.R., the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, on 1940-08-03. This annexation was never recognized by the United States. The Soviet Union acknowledged Lithuania's independence on 1991-09-06.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Litauen
2. Dutch: Litouwen, Republiek Litouwen (formal)
3. English: Republic of Lithuania (formal)
4. Finnish: Liettua
5. French: Lituanie f
6. German: Litauen n
7. Icelandic: Litháen
8. Italian: Lituania f
9. Lithuanian: Lietuva, Lietuvos Respublika (formal)
10. Norwegian: Litauen, Republikken Litauen (formal)
11. Portuguese: Lituânia f, República f da Lituânia f (formal)
12. Russian: Литва, Литовская Республика (formal)
13. Spanish: Lituania
14. Swedish: Litauen
15. Turkish: Litvanya Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

Lithuanian Lietuva: land abundant with water

Primary subdivisions: 

Lithuania is divided into ten apskritys (sing. apskritis: counties).

Short Name	Full Name	HASC	ISO	FIPS	NUTS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)
Alytus	Alytaus Apskritis	LT.AS	AL	LH56	LT001	187,769	5,425	2,095
Kaunas	Kauno Apskritis	LT.KS	KU	LH57	LT002	701,529	8,089	3,123
Klaipėda	Klaipėdos Apskritis	LT.KP	KL	LH58	LT003	385,768	5,209	2,011
Marijampolė	Marijampolės Apskritis	LT.MA	MR	LH59	LT004	188,634	4,463	1,723
Panevėžys	Panevėžio Apskritis	LT.PA	PN	LH60	LT005	299,990	7,881	3,043
Šiauliai	Šiaulių Apskritis	LT.SH	SA	LH61	LT006	370,096	8,540	3,297
Tauragė	Tauragės Apskritis	LT.TG	TA	LH62	LT007	134,275	4,411	1,703
Telšiai	Telšių Apskritis	LT.TL	TE	LH63	LT008	179,885	4,350	1,680
Utena	Utenos Apskritis	LT.UN	UT	LH64	LT009	185,962	7,201	2,780
Vilnius	Vilniaus Apskritis	LT.VI	VL	LH65	LT00A	850,064	9,731	3,757
10 counties						3,483,972	65,300	25,212
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. NUTS: Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics. Population: 2001-04-06 census. Capitals: Have same names as counties (short name).

Postal codes: 

Lithuania used four-digit postal codes. A new system of five-digit postal codes was initiated on 2004-01-01, but either type of code can be used during the transition period. Postal codes for Lithuanian addresses can be identified by prefixing them with "LT-".

Further subdivisions:

See the Municipalities of Lithuania page.

Lithuania is further subdivided into sixty entities of three types: miestas (city), rajonas (district), and savivaldybe (municipality). These are subdivided into seniunijos (subdistricts).

Celvin Ruisdael discovered this Lithuanian  website, which has a directory of counties, municipalities, and subdistricts.

Territorial extent: 

Neringa occupies the Lithuanian part of Kurshskaya Kosa, a long peninsula which is connected to the mainland in the Kaliningrad oblast of Russia.

Origins of names: 

Klaipėda: Lithuanian klai: open, pėda: plain

Change history: 

1. 1900: Present-day Lithuania consisted of the Russian guberniy of Kovno (capital Kaunas), northwestern Vilna (Vilnius), northern Suwalki (Suwalki), and a small part of southern Courland (Mitava), plus the Memelgebiet in Prussia.
2. 1920-10-07: Poland occupied the southeastern part of Vilna, including the city of Vilnius.
3. 1923-01: Memel territory, which had been administered by France since the Treaty of Versailles (1919-06-28), occupied by Lithuania, and given the Lithuanian name Klaipėda.
4. 1924-05-08: Memel territory became an autonomous part of Lithuania under the Memel Statute. It consisted of the districts of Memel, Pagegiai, and Šilutė. The divisions of Lithuania at this time were as follows:

District	Population	Area(km.²)	Capital
Alytus	139,562	2,771	Alytus
Biržai-Pasvalys	110,426	2,722	Biržai
Kaunas	233,057	2,608	Kaunas
Kėdainiai	101,656	2,406	Kėdainiai
Kretinga	114,892	2,634	Kretinga
Marijampolė	118,964	2,279	Marijampolė
Mažeikiai	83,590	1,961	Mažeikiai
Memel	73,079	852	Memel
Pagegiai	42,138	938	Pagegiai
Panevėžys	178,058	4,387	Panevėžys
Raseiniai	129,275	3,077	Raseiniai
Rokiškis	95,459	2,165	Rokiškis
Šakiai	76,484	1,730	Šakiai
Seinai	48,029	1,248	Lazdijai
Šiauliai	238,892	6,048	Šiauliai
Šilutė	38,576	650	Šilutė
Tauragė	136,279	3,279	Tauragė
Telšiai	96,631	2,626	Telšiai
Trakai	99,388	2,145	Kaišiadorys
Ukmergė	148,540	3,069	Ukmergė
Utena	127,955	3,017	Utena
Vilkaviškis	93,578	1,321	Vilkaviškis
Zarasai	50,855	1,311	Zarasai
23 districts	2,575,363	55,244
Population: 1938 estimate

1. 1939-03-22: Memel territory annexed by Germany.
2. 1939-10-10: Over half of the Polish territory in Vilna guberniya restored to Lithuania. Capital of Lithuania moved from Kaunas to Vilnius.
3. 1990: Lithuania reorganized into 10 apskritis (districts, as shown in table above): Alytus, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Marijampolė, Panevėžys, Šiauliai, Tauragė, Telšiai, Utena, and Vilnius.
4. 1994: Lithuania reorganized into 44 miestai (towns) and 12 rajonai (regions). They were intended to supersede the counties, but the counties are still in operation. The number of secondary subdivisions has since increased to 60, as shown on the Municipalities of Lithuania page.
5. 2004-05-01: Lithuania joined the European Union.

Other names of subdivisions: 

In transcribing place names, č is often replaced by ch or tsch; š by sh or sch; ž by zh; and ė by ie or ye. Lithuanian is an inflected language, and names of divisions may have different endings depending on context. Most of the variants listed here are rather outdated.

1. Alytus: Olita (German); Alitus (Spanish)
2. Biržai: Birschi (German)
3. Jonava: Janowo (German); Ianova (variant)
4. Joniškis: Janischki (German)
5. Jurbarkas: Jurburg (German); Yurburg (variant)
6. Kaunas: Kowno (German); Kovno (variant)
7. Kėdainiai: Keidany (German)
8. Klaipėda: Memel (German, obsolete)
9. Kretinga: Krottingen (German)
10. Marijampolė: Mariampol (German)
11. Mažeikiai: Moscheiki (German)
12. Neringa: Nida (variant); Nidden (German)
13. Palanga: Polangen (German)
14. Panevėžys: Ponewiesch, Ponewjesh (German); Poneviezli (variant)
15. Prienai: Preny (German)
16. Radviliškis: Radsiwilischki (German)
17. Raseiniai: Rossieny (German)
18. Šiauliai: Schaulen (German); Shavli (variant)
19. Šilalė: Schileli (German)
20. Šilutė: Heydekrug (German)
21. Skuodas: Shkudy (variant)
22. Švenčionys: Schwentschionys, Swenzjany (German); Sventziany (variant)
23. Tauragė: Tauroggen (German)
24. Telšiai: Telsche, Telschi (German); Telshe (variant)
25. Trakai: Troki (German)
26. Ukmergė: Wilkomir (German); Vilkomir (variant)
27. Vilkaviškis: Wilkowischki (German)
28. Vilnius: Wilna (German); Vilna (Italian, Portuguese, Spanish); Vilnious (French)