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Updates: 

Update 3 to Geopolitical Entities and Codes, the successor to FIPS PUB 10-4, was issued on 2011-02-28. It changes the status of Asunción from department to capital district.

I updated the 2002 population column to the latest figures from the DGEEC (Paraguay Statistics) website, presumably corrected. Thanks to Sorin Cosoveanu for collecting those numbers. I also added the postal code column to the main table.

The capital of San Pedro is familiarly called San Pedro. Its full name is sometimes spelled San Pedro del Ycuamandiyú and sometimes San Pedro del Ycuamandyyú, and Spanish Wikipedia (retrieved 2009-09-12) calls it San Pedro del Ykuamandyju, but the first version appears to be more standard. The capital of Presidente Hayes, by the way, has been moved back to Villa Hayes.

International standard ISO 3166-2 was published on December 15, 1998. It superseded ISO/DIS 3166-2 (draft international standard). For Paraguay, the draft standard showed nineteen departments and one city. The final standard shows seventeen departments and one city. The departments of Chaco and Nueva Asunción had been dropped. Change Notice 1 to FIPS PUB 10-4, dated December 1, 1998, shows the same change.

Country overview: 

Short name	PARAGUAY
ISO code	PY
FIPS code	PA
Language	Spanish (es)
Time zone	-4~
Capital	Asunción

 

The Gran Chaco was disputed between Paraguay and Bolivia for many years. Until 1932, it was divided along a line roughly from the split of the Pilcomayo River to Fuerte Olimpo. Then oil was discovered, and the Chaco War (1932-1935) broke out. In 1938-07, with the signing of a peace treaty, Paraguay expanded to its present limits.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Paraguay
2. Dutch: Paraguay, Republiek Paraguay (formal)
3. English: Republic of Paraguay (formal)
4. Finnish: Paraguay
5. French: Paraguay m
6. German: Paraguay n
7. Icelandic: Paragvæ
8. Italian: Paraguay m
9. Norwegian: Paraguay, Republikken Paraguay (formal)
10. Portuguese: Paraguai, República f do Paraguai m (formal)
11. Russian: Республика Парагвай (formal)
12. Spanish: Paraguay, República f del Paraguay m (formal)
13. Swedish: Paraguay
14. Turkish: Paraguay Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

Theory 1: Guaraní para: river + guaso: big; theory 2: Paragua (chief's name) + y: river

Primary subdivisions: 

Paraguay is divided into seventeen departamentos (departments) and one distrito capital (capital district).

Department	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Post	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Alto Paraguay	PY.AG	16	PA23	90-92	11,587	82,349	31,795	Fuerte Olimpo
Alto Paraná	PY.AA	10	PA01	70-77	558,672	14,895	5,751	Ciudad del Este
Amambay	PY.AM	13	PA02	85-86	114,917	12,933	4,993	Pedro Juan Caballero
Asunción	PY.AS	ASU	PA22	11-19	512,112	117	45	Asunción
Boquerón	PY.BQ	19	PA24	93-95	41,106	91,669	35,394	Filadelfia
Caaguazú	PY.CG	5	PA04	33-39	435,357	11,474	4,430	Coronel Oviedo
Caazapá	PY.CZ	6	PA05	56-59	139,517	9,496	3,666	Caazapá
Canindeyú	PY.CY	14	PA19	78-79	140,137	14,667	5,663	Salto del Guairá
Central	PY.CE	11	PA06	20-27	1,362,893	2,465	952	Areguá
Concepción	PY.CN	1	PA07	87-89	179,450	18,051	6,970	Concepción
Cordillera	PY.CR	3	PA08	30-32	233,854	4,948	1,910	Caacupé
Guairá	PY.GU	4	PA10	50-55	178,650	3,846	1,485	Villarrica
Itapúa	PY.IT	7	PA11	60-69	453,692	16,525	6,380	Encarnación
Misiones	PY.MI	8	PA12	47-49	101,783	9,556	3,690	San Juan Bautista (de las Misiones)
Ñeembucú	PY.NE	12	PA13	28-29	76,348	12,147	4,690	Pilar
Paraguarí	PY.PG	9	PA15	40-46	221,932	8,705	3,361	Paraguarí
Presidente Hayes	PY.PH	15	PA16	96-99	82,493	72,907	28,150	Villa Hayes
San Pedro	PY.SP	2	PA17	80-84	318,698	20,002	7,723	San Pedro (del Ycuamandiyú)
18 divisions					5,163,198	406,752	157,048
Department: except for Asunción, which is a capital district. HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO standard 3166-2, issued December 15, 1998. For full identification in a global context, prefix "PY-" to the code (ex: PY-11 represents Central). Within Paraguay, the departments are referred to by numbers (usually expressed as Roman numerals or ordinals) which are the same as their ISO codes, except that Boquerón is number 17. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4, a U.S. government standard. Post: Paraguay uses four-digit postal codes. The first two digits usually indicate the department. Population: 2002-08-28 census.

 

Note: In the book "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries", I used the spelling Canendiyú. The Paraguayan legislature initially enacted that spelling when the department was created, but later found it to be in error and changed it to Canindeyú.

Further subdivisions:

See the Districts of Paraguay page.

The Paraguay River divides Paraguay into two provincias (provinces), named Occidente and Oriente (West and East, respectively). The provinces are further divided into the departments listed above. The only departments in Occidente are Alto Paraguay, Boquerón, Chaco, Nueva Asunción, and Presidente Hayes. The departments are subdivided into distritos or partidos, which are subdivided into compañías and municipios.

Territorial extent: 

The UN LOCODE page  for Paraguay 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. Alto Paraguay, Alto Paraná: Spanish alto: high, along the upper course of the Paraguay (respectively, Paraná) River in Paraguay
2. Asunción: Originally Spanish Nuestra Señora de la Asunción: Our Lady of the Assumption. Founded on 1536-08-15, Assumption Day
3. Chaco: from Guaraní chako: hunting ground
4. Misiones: = Missions, for Jesuit missions to the natives
5. Ñeembucú: local word for endless
6. Nueva Asunción: Spanish nueva: new, named after the capital Asunción
7. Presidente Hayes: named after U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes in gratitude for his favorable decision in arbitration of a border conflict

Change history: 

1. 1906: The first law on territorial division of the republic (1906) divided the country into two secciones (sections): Oriental and Occidental. Oriental was subdivided into twelve departments and a federal district, Occidental into military commandancies (source [1]).
2. 1935: The division of Paraguay at the end of the Chaco War was:

Department	No.	Population	Area(km.²)	Capital	Approximate equivalent
Caazapá	6	74,267	10,790	Caazapá	Caazapá
Caraguatay	3	146,479	5,625	Caraguatay	Cordillera
Concepción	1	43,953	32,569	Concepción	Concepción; Amambay (part)
Encarnación	7	71,685	27,363	Encarnación	Itapúa
Federal District		154,923	632	Asunción	Asunción
Paraguarí	10	88,769	2,836	Paraguarí	Paraguarí (part)
Pilar	12	31,144	8,632	Pilar	Ñeembucú (part)
Quyyndy	9	48,139	6,768	Quyyndy	Paraguarí (part)
Región Occidental		45,860	230,000	Villa Hayes	Boquerón, Olimpo, Presidente Hayes
San Ignacio	8	50,351	7,648	San Ignacio	Misiones
San Pedro	2	35,907	35,633	San Pedro	San Pedro; Amambay, Caaguazú, Alto Paraná (parts)
Villarrica	4	46,740	1,958	Villarrica	Guairá
Villeta	11	57,341	4,496	Villeta	Central; Ñeembucú (part)
Yhú	5	55,783	14,882	Yhú	Caaguazú, Alto Paraná (parts)
14 departments		951,341	389,832
Population: 1936 incomplete census results (include some duplicate counts) Approximate equivalent: departments covering this area after the reorganization

1. 1945-07-10: Occidental was reorganized into three departments: Presidente Hayes, Boquerón, and Olimpo. By Decree No. 9,848, Amambay department was split from San Pedro. The name of Caraguatay was changed to Cordillera. Caaguazú department was created by annexing part of San Pedro to Yhú. The name of San Ignacio was changed to Misiones, and its capital moved from San Ignacio to San Juan Bautista. The name of Encarnación was changed to Itapúa. Quyyndy department merged with Paraguarí. Alto Paraná department was created from parts of San Pedro and Encarnación. The resulting division consisted of the sixteen departments of Alto Paraná (capital Hernandarias), Amambay (Pedro Juan Caballero), Boquerón (Mariscal Estigarribia), Caaguazú (Coronel Oviedo), Caazapá (Caazapá), Central (Asunción), Concepción (Concepción), Cordillera (Caacupé), Guairá (Villarrica), Itapúa (Encarnación), Misiones (San Juan Bautista), Ñeembucú (Pilar), Olimpo (Fuerte Olimpo), Paraguarí (Paraguarí), Presidente Hayes (Villa Hayes), and San Pedro (San Pedro), and the capital district, Distrito Capital.
2. 1973-12-07: Law No. 426 divided the country into 19 departments, of which fourteen were in Oriental region and five in Occidental. The latter were Alto Paraguay (capital Fuerte Olimpo), Boquerón (Doctor Pedro P. Peña), Chaco (Mayor Pablo Lagerenza), Nueva Asunción (General Eugenio A. Garay), and Presidente Hayes (Villa Hayes) in the Occidental region. Occidental was released from military control. Canendiyú department was formed from parts of Alto Paraná and Caaguazú. Some other borders were changed. Capital of Alto Paraná moved from Hernandarias (alternate name Tacurupucú) to Puerto Presidente Stroessner.
3. The name of Canendiyú was later changed to Canindeyú, to correct a toponymic error.
4. ~1988: Capital of Presidente Hayes moved from Villa Hayes to Pozo Colorado.
5. 1989-08-11: Name of capital of Alto Paraná department changed from Puerto Presidente Stroessner to Ciudad del Este.
6. 1992-11-06: Law No. 71 merged Nueva Asunción department with Boquerón, and Chaco with Alto Paraguay, leaving Occidental with the same territorial divisions as in 1945. [My other sources indicate that the boundaries of the three new departments were significantly different from the former configuration.] Capital of Boquerón department moved from Doctor Pedro P. Peña to Filadelfia.
7. 1993-07-02: By law No. 201, Areguá became capital of Central department. The department was administered from Asunción before that date, although some older sources list Limpio and Ypacaraí as the capital of Central.
8. 2001-06-06: Capital of Presidente Hayes moved back to Villa Hayes from Pozo Colorado, by Law No. 1,716.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Asunción: Assomption (French-variant); Assunção (Portuguese); Distrito Capital, Distrito Federal (variant)
2. Canindeyú: Canendiyú (frequent mistake, found even in some official Paraguayan sources)
3. Cordillera: Caraguatay (obsolete); Las Cordilleras, La Cordillera (variant)
4. Guairá: Villarrica (obsolete)
5. Itapúa: Encarnación (obsolete); Itapua, Itapuá (variant)
6. Misiones: Las Misiones (variant); San Ignacio (obsolete)
7. Ñeembucú: Neembucú (variant)
8. Nueva Asunción: Nova Assunção (Portuguese)

Population history:

Department	1950-10-28	1962-10-14	1972-07-09	1982-07-11	1992-08-26	2002-08-28
Alto Paraguay	2,705	3,854	5,366	9,021	12,156	11,587
Alto Paraná	9,531	24,067	88,607	199,644	406,584	558,672
Amambay	18,160	34,505	65,111	68,395	99,860	114,917
Asunción	206,634	288,882	388,958	454,881	500,938	512,112
Boquerón	28,082	40,405	26,190	14,790	29,060	41,106
Caaguazú	71,699	125,138	210,858	299,437	386,412	435,357
Caazapá	73,051	92,401	103,139	109,452	129,352	139,517
Canindeyú				66,409	103,785	140,137
Central	167,805	229,073	310,390	497,388	866,856	1,362,893
Concepción	62,326	85,690	108,130	133,977	167,289	179,450
Cordillera	145,232	188,313	194,218	194,011	198,701	233,854
Guairá	90,308	114,949	124,799	143,510	161,991	178,650
Itapúa	111,424	149,821	201,411	262,680	377,536	453,692
Misiones	43,449	59,441	69,246	77,475	89,018	101,783
Ñeembucú	50,861	57,878	73,098	70,338	69,770	76,348
Paraguarí	159,161	203,012	211,977	204,399	208,527	221,932
Presidente Hayes	23,490	29,870	38,439	33,021	64,417	82,493
San Pedro	64,534	91,804	138,018	191,002	280,336	318,698
Totals	1,408,400	1,819,103	2,357,955	3,029,830	4,152,588	5,163,198

 

Note: The 1950 total includes 79,948 people not enumerated by department. (Sources [2], [3], [4]).

Sources: 

1. [1] Departamentos del Paraguay (http://www.paraguaygobierno.gov.py/departaemtnosparaguay.html, dead link, retrieved 2003-07-06), a page on the Paraguayan governmental Website.
2. [2] 2002 census data retrieved from Dirección General de Estadística, Encuestas y Censos  (DGEEC).
3. [3] Atlas Censal de Paraguay  has all six censuses.
4. [4] 1992 census data: Spreadsheet download  from DGEEC site, retrieved 2009-09-19.