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Updates: 

I've added 1950 census data.

FIPS Publication Change Notice No. 10, affecting FIPS PUB 10-4, was issued on 2006-03-23. It assigns a new FIPS code to Maputo city.

According to news reports, Mozambique planned to transfer the capital of Maputo province from Matola to Moamba. The project was abandoned for lack of funds.

Country overview: 

Short name	MOZAMBIQUE
ISO code	MZ
FIPS code	MZ
Language	Portuguese (pt)
Time zone	+2
Capital	Maputo

 

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Portuguese held a colony called Estado de Africa Oriental (literally, State of East Africa, but usually called Portuguese East Africa). Some parts of it had been chartered to Companhia de Moçambique (the Mozambique Company) and Companhia do Nyassa (the Nyassa Company). As the colony became better organized, it came to be called Mozambique as a whole. Mozambique attained full independence on 1975-06-25.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Mocambique, Mozambique
2. Dutch: Mozambique, Republiek Mozambique (formal)
3. English: Republic of Mozambique (formal)
4. Finnish: Mosambik
5. French: Mozambique m
6. German: Mosambik n
7. Icelandic: Mósambík
8. Italian: Mozambico m
9. Norwegian: Mosambik, Republikken Mosambik (formal)
10. Portuguese: Moçambique, República f de Moçambique n (formal)
11. Russian: Республика Мозамбик (formal)
12. Spanish: Mozambique m, República f de Mozambique m (formal)
13. Swedish: Moçambique
14. Turkish: Mozambik Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

According to tradition, from Musa Mbiki, the name of a sultan at the time of first Portuguese colonization. Became the name of a settlement, later applied to the whole country.

Primary subdivisions: 

Mozambique is divided into ten provincias (provinces) and one cidade (city).

Province	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Post	CG	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Cabo Delgado	MZ.CD	P	MZ01	32	02	1,632,065	82,625	31,902	Pemba (Porto Amélia)
Gaza	MZ.GA	G	MZ02	12	09	1,251,323	75,709	29,231	Xai-Xai (Vila de João Belo)
Inhambane	MZ.IN	I	MZ03	13	08	1,301,967	68,615	26,492	Inhambane
Manica	MZ.MN	B	MZ10	22	06	1,438,476	61,661	23,807	Chimoio (Vila Pery)
Maputo	MZ.MP	L	MZ04	11	10	1,233,143	25,756	9,944	Matola
Maputo [city]	MZ.MC	MPM	MZ11	11	11	1,120,360	602	232	Maputo (Lourenço Marques)
Nampula	MZ.NM	N	MZ06	31	03	4,049,082	81,606	31,508	Nampula
Niassa	MZ.NS	A	MZ07	33	01	1,182,393	129,056	49,829	Lichinga (Vila Cabral)
Sofala	MZ.SO	S	MZ05	21	07	1,671,864	68,018	26,262	Beira
Tete	MZ.TE	T	MZ08	23	05	1,801,528	100,724	38,890	Tete
Zambézia	MZ.ZA	Q	MZ09	24	04	3,897,064	105,008	40,544	Quelimane
11 provinces						20,579,265	799,380	308,642
Province: except Maputo [city], which is a city. HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Post: First two digits of postal code (source [4]). CG: Códigos Geográficos (geographic codes, source [5]). Population: 2007-08-01 census (source [1]). Area: Source [6]. Capital: Present name and (colonial name, where different).

Postal codes: 

Mozambique uses four-digit postal codes. They were inaugurated on 2004-01-01. The first two digits indicate the province.

Further subdivisions:

See the Districts of Mozambique page.

The provinces are subdivided into distritos (districts). The districts are further subdivided into town and city districts and localidades (localities).

Territorial extent: 

1. Cabo Delgado includes Ilhas do Ibo, Vamizi, Matemo, Metudo, and some other small coastal islands.
2. Inhambane includes Ilhas do Bazaruto and Benguérua.
3. Maputo includes Ilha Inhaca.
4. Nampula includes Ilhas Angoche, Njoro, and Moçambique.
5. Sofala includes Ilhas Chiloane, Macau, and Buene.

Origins of names: 

1. Lourenço Marques: for the Portuguese trader who established a post there in 1544.
2. Maputo: after the Maputo River.
3. Niassa: after Lake Nyasa, which comes from a Kitumbuka word for lake.
4. Sofala: from Arabic for low, flat region.
5. Zambézia: after the Zambezi River.

Change history: 

In 1900, the part of modern Mozambique northwest of the Zambezi and Shire Rivers was called Moçambique; the rest of it was Lourenço Marques. Various districts existed, and even issued stamps, during the first part of the century, including Inhambane, Lourenço Marques, Mozambique Colony, Mozambique Company, Nyassa Company, Quelimane, Tete, and Zambésia. The Nyassa Company territory is now Cabo Delgado and Niassa.

1. 1919-06-28: Kiongo Triangle (over 1,000 sq. km., south of the Rovuma River) transferred from German East Africa to Mozambique by the Versailles Treaty.
2. 1942-07-19: Charter of the Mozambique Company expired; its territory, known as Manica and Sofala, became a district of Mozambique.
3. 1943-01-01: Mozambique constituted as four districts: Manica and Sofala, Niassa, Sul do Save (South of the Save River), and Zambézia.
4. 1954-10-20: Cabo Delgado and Mozambique districts split from Niassa. Sul do Save district divided into Gaza, Inhambane, and Lourenço Marques. Tete district split from Manica and Sofala.
5. 1975-06-25: Mozambique became independent.
6. 1976-02-03: Name of capital of country changed from Lourenço Marques to Maputo.
7. 1976: Name of Lourenço Marques district changed to Maputo. Names of five district capitals changed from "colonial names" (listed in table above) to modern names.
8. ~1977: Name of Mozambique district changed to Nampula.
9. ~1978: Status of divisions changed from districts to provinces. Manica and Sofala district divided into Manica province and Sofala province.
10. ~1984: Maputo city split from Maputo province; Matola became capital of Maputo province.

Other names of subdivisions: 

Provinces are sometimes called by the names of their capitals.

1. Maputo [city]: Lourenço Marques (obsolete)
2. Nampula: Moçambique (Portuguese-obsolete); Mozambique (obsolete)
3. Niassa: Lago (obsolete), Nyasa (variant)

Population history:

Division	1950-09-21	1960-09-05	1970-12-15	1980-08-01	1997-08-01	2007-08-01
Cabo Delgado	497,105	549,000	567,478	900,704	1,382,200	1,632,065
Gaza	677,387	682,000	792,887	982,603	1,118,500	1,251,323
Inhambane	570,089	583,000	745,911	1,023,879	1,158,900	1,301,967
Manica	710,129	780,000	1,085,209	587,345	1,041,000	1,438,476
Maputo	198,932	437,000	799,358	500,892	832,100	1,233,143
Maputo [city]				739,077	989,400	1,120,360
Nampula	1,317,694	1,452,000	1,696,466	2,241,745	3,067,900	4,049,082
Niassa	258,090	281,000	297,428	507,816	809,800	1,182,393
Sofala				990,732	1,370,700	1,671,864
Tete	338,495	471,000	492,233	780,081	1,227,800	1,801,528
Zambézia	1,164,396	1,369,000	1,756,864	2,418,851	3,100,900	3,897,064
Total	5,732,317	6,604,000	8,233,834	11,673,725	16,099,246	20,579,265

 

Sources: 1950 - [7]; 1960 - [2]; 1970 - [3]; 1980, 1997, 2007 - [1]. Population of Sofala included under Manica, and of Maputo [city] under Maputo, until 1980.

Sources: 

1. [1] 3º Recenseamento Geral da População e Habitação . Instituto Nacional de Estatística (retrieved 2011-04-26).
2. [2] Encyclopædia Britannica, 1984 edition.
3. [3] Almanaque Abril, 1979 edition. Editora Abril, São Paulo, 1978.
4. [4] The Post Office  website has four-digit postal codes for Mozambique (retrieved 2004-07-12, when the codes were relatively new).
5. [5] Código Post. Instituto Nacional de Estatística of Mozambique. The two-digit codes shown are part of a hierarchical numbering scheme. At the second level of the hierarchy are four-digit codes which identify the districts; at the third level are six-digit codes for local administrative stations (http://www.ine.gov.mz/Codigos_Geografico/codigo_ post.htm, dead link, retrieved 2004-07-12).
6. [6] Densidade populacional por provincia. Instituto Nacional de Estatística (http://www.ine.gov.mz/indicadores2/densidade_populacional_por__prov.htm, dead link, retrieved 2004-01-15).
7. [7] Demographic Yearbook , 7th Ed. Statistical Office of the United Nations, New York, 1955 (retrieved 2011-08-20).