Districts of Serbia

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Updates: 

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on 2008-02-17. If it achieves international recognition and gets an ISO country code, I will separate its listing from Serbia's. Some countries have already recognized it, and the U.S. has issued FIPS code KV for it. The European Union is using XK as a temporary substitute for an ISO code. ISO codes beginning with 'X' are reserved for user-customized codes. Kosovo had been administered under U.N. supervision since 1999.

Some of the plain names in the main table had been left in adjectival form. I've changed them to standard form now.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter I-8, published on 2007-04-17, has ISO codes for the districts of Serbia. They are shown in the table below.

ISO 3166-1 Newsletter V-12, dated 2006-09-26, announces the splitting of Serbia and Montenegro into two countries. Serbia is the successor country to Serbia and Montenegro, so this page will still be the place to look for Yugoslavia's history.

FIPS 10-4 Change Notice 11, dated 2006-07-11, assigned new FIPS codes to Serbia and Montenegro as separate countries.

On 2002-03-14, Serbia and Montenegro (the two republics of Yugoslavia) signed an accord. Under its terms, they agreed to restructure their federation, and rename it "Serbia and Montenegro" (Serbian: Srbija i Crna Gora) under the eventual new constitution. Montenegro held a referendum on independence from Serbia on 2006-05-21. The required 55% majority was attained, although barely. The National Assembly of Montenegro declared independence on 2006-06-03. On 2006-06-28, Montenegro became the 192nd member of the United Nations. Serbia remains the successor state to Serbia and Montenegro.

FIPS Publication Change Notice No. 9, affecting FIPS PUB 10-4, was issued on 2004-10-01. The only change was the name of the country, from Yugoslavia to Serbia and Montenegro.

ISO 3166-1 Newsletter V-8 was published on 2003-07-23. It shows the name of Yugoslavia changed to Serbia and Montenegro. The two-letter country code is changed from YU to CS, and the three-letter code from YUG to SCG. The three-digit code remains unchanged. The new codes were chosen on the basis of the Serbian form of the country name. ISO 3166-2 Newsletter number I-5, dated 2003-09-05, changes the ISO codes for the subdivisions of Yugoslavia so that they contain the new country code.

Erratum: The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was proclaimed on 1918-12-01, not -04 as stated in the book.

The position of the United States Department of State from about 1992-2000 was that Montenegro and Serbia were two separate, unrecognized countries. Apparently, after Slobodan Milosevic was defeated in the 2000 election, the U.S. recognized Yugoslavia again. Change Notice 6 to FIPS PUB 10-4 was published on 2001-01-28. The FIPS country codes MW (Montenegro) and SR (Serbia) were dropped, to be replaced by YI (Yugoslavia). (Note: the FIPS code for Yugoslavia used to be YO, in the period before 1992 when the country consisted of six republics.) Montenegro and Serbia were given codes with a YI prefix.

Country overview: 

In 1900, the Balkans were still balkanized. The Ottoman Empire retained a foothold in Europe. Its vilayet of Kosovo later became part of Yugoslavia, as did northern Monastir and a corner of Saloniki vilayet. Bosnia-Herzegovina and the sanjak of Novibazar, both nominally Ottoman, had been occupied by Austria-Hungary since 1878. Serbia and Montenegro were independent kingdoms. The rest of the area that would eventually become Yugoslavia was in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, including the Austrian provinces of Carniola and Dalmatia, parts of Coastland and Styria, the Hungarian provinces of Fiume and Croatia and Slavonia, and parts of the Hungarian counties of Bács-Bodrog, Csongrád, Temes, and Torontál. In 1908, Austria-Hungary formally annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina. Following the Second Balkan War, by the Bucharest Peace Treaty (1913-08-10), Serbia annexed lands from the Ottoman Empire including its present southern section and what is now the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The sanjak of Novibazar was split between Serbia and Montenegro. On 1918-12-01, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was proclaimed. This kingdom was soon being called Yugoslavia, although the name didn't become official until 1929. The peace treaties which ended World War I sanctioned the fait accompli. They left the exact border with Italy open for negotiation (see Croatia and Slovenia for more details about this border, which was again shifted after World War II). Yugoslavia was occupied by the axis powers in World War II. After it was liberated, on 1945-11-29, it proclaimed itself the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, formed as a federation of six constituent republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. Within Serbia there were two autonomous divisions: Kosovo region and Voivodina province. When the Communist bloc fell apart, starting in 1991, the republics began declaring themselves independent. Finally, only Montenegro and Serbia remained in the federation. They claimed to be the successor state to Yugoslavia. The United Nations and the United States rejected this claim, and treated them as two separate unrecognized states, until about 2000. The country changed its name to Serbia and Montenegro in 2003. Montenegro became a separate country in 2006. Kosovo and Voivodina have been stripped of their autonomy.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Serbien, Serbien og Montenegro (obsolete)
2. Dutch: Servië, Staatengemeenschap Servië en Montenegro (formal), Joegoslavië (obsolete), Servië en Montenegro (obsolete)
3. English: Yugoslavia (obsolete), Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (formal-obsolete)
4. Finnish: Serbia, Serbia ja Montenegro (obsolete), Jugoslavia (obsolete)
5. French: Serbie f, Serbie-et-Monténégro f (obsolete), Yougoslavie f (obsolete)
6. German: Serbien n, Serbien und Montenegro n (obsolete), Jugoslawien n (obsolete)
7. Icelandic: Serbía, Serbía og Svartfjallaland (obsolete)
8. Italian: Serbia f, Serbia e Montenegro m (obsolete), Iugoslavia (obsolete)
9. Norwegian: Serbia, Serbia og Montenegro (obsolete), Jugoslavia (obsolete)
10. Portuguese: Sérvia f, Sérvia e Montenegro (obsolete), Estado-Comunidade da Sérvia e Montenegro (formal-obsolete), Iugoslávia f (Brazil-obsolete), Jugoslávia (obsolete)
11. Serbian: Srbija, Srbija i Crna Gora (obsolete), Savezna Republika Jugoslavija (formal-obsolete)
12. Spanish: Serbia f, Serbia y Montenegro (obsolete), Yugoslavia f (obsolete)
13. Swedish: Serbien, Serbien och Montenegro (obsolete), Jugoslavien (obsolete)

Origin of name: 

Serbia: land of the Serbs

Primary subdivisions: 

Serbia is divided into 29 okruzi (sing. okrug: districts) and one grad (city).

Note: HASC codes are inherited from Serbia and Montenegro with CS.SR replaced by RS. Exception: the former code for Prizrenski was CS.SR.PR.

Postal codes: 

Serbia and Montenegro uses five-digit postal codes. The republic can be deduced from the first digit.

Further subdivisions:

See the Municipalities of Serbia page.

Before Yugoslavia broke up, it was divided into six socialist republics. One of them, Serbia, was further divided into Serbia proper and two autonomous divisions. All of them - republics and autonomous areas - were in turn divided into opčine (communes). Now, the secondary subdivisions of Serbia are okruzi (districts), opstine (municipalities or communes), and one grad (independent city).

The major political divisions of Serbia are:

Origins of names: 

1. Kosovo: field of the black birds
2. Yugoslavia = Serb jugo: south + ethnic name Slav + -ia (country suffix)

Change history: 

1. 1918-12-01: Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was proclaimed.
2. 1920-06-04: Croatia, Slavonia, and western Banat were annexed from Hungary by the Treaty of Trianon.
3. 1920-07-16: Austrian provinces of Coastland, Carniola, Dalmatia, the southern part of Styria, and a small section of Carinthia were incorporated into Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes by the Treaty of Saint-Germain.
4. 1922-04-26: Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was reorganized into 33 oblasti (sing. oblast: regions).
5. 1929-10-03: Name of the country was officially changed to Yugoslavia (Jugo-Slavia was the preferred transliteration from the Cyrillic alphabet at that time). Yugoslavia was reorganized into nine banovine (sing. banovina, variously translated province, bannate, or prefecture) and one special administrative zone, listed below.

1. 1939-08-26: Under the Cvetkovic-Macek agreement, Hrvatska province was formed by merging Primorska and Savska provinces, plus kotari (districts) taken from other provinces: Brcko, Derventa, Dubrovnik, Fojnica, Gradacac, Ilok, Sid, and Travnik.
2. 1945-11-29: Yugoslavia became the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising six republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia.
3. 1946: Name of capital of Montenegro changed from Podgorica to Titograd.
4. 1991-01-25: Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia.
5. 1991-10-08: Slovenia declared independence from Yugoslavia.
6. 1992-01-15: Croatia's claim to independence was recognized by the European Union.
7. 1992-04-05: Independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina was proclaimed.
8. 1992: Name of capital of Montenegro restored to Podgorica. At that time, the primary subdivisions of the country were the two republics.

International standard ISO 3166-2 was published on December 15, 1998. It superseded ISO/DIS 3166-2 (draft international standard). For Yugoslavia, the draft standard showed two divisions, which it categorized as "(remaining) socialist republics". The word "remaining", of course, refers to the fact that since 1990, four of Yugoslavia's six original republics had broken away. The final standard shows the same two republics with the same codes. They are no longer described as remaining or socialist. In addition, there are two new entries for the two autonomous provinces of Serbia. Officially, Serbia contains these two provinces, as well as a substantially larger area of Serbia proper. The full set of subdivisions of Yugoslavia according to ISO is shown in this table.

1. 2003-02-04: Official name of country changed to "Serbia and Montenegro".
2. 2006-06-03: Montenegro became independent from Serbia and Montenegro; Serbia is the successor state.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Kosovo: Autonomous Kosovo and Metohia Region (formal); Kosmet (informal); Kosova, Kossovo (variant); Kosovo-Metohija (French, Serbian); Kossowo-Metohija (German)
2. Montenegro: Crna Gora (Serbian); Kara Dag (Turkish); Monténégro (French)
3. Serbia: Serbía (Icelandic); Serbie (French); Serbien (Danish, German, Swedish); Servia (obsolete); Servie (French-obsolete); Srbija (Serbian)
4. Voivodina: Vojvodina (Italian); Vojvodine (French); Wojwodina (German)

Population history:

1959: Populations are based on a different territorial division. Among other things, all of Kosovo is shown as one district. Source: Geografski Atlas Jugoslavije, by Petar Mardešić and Zvonimir Dugački. Znaje, Zagreb, 1961.