Districts of Timor-Leste

Buy data    Donate

Updates: 

FIPS PUB 10-4 Change Notice 13 was issued on 2008-02-04. The only change for Timor-Leste is to adopt the correct official name of the country (replacing "East Timor").

I have changed the first element of the HASC codes from TP to TL, to conform to ISO 3166-1.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter number I-4, dated 2002-12-10, changes the name of East Timor to Timor-Leste, in conformance with ISO 3166-1, and corrects a misspelling of the name of Liquiça district.

ISO 3166-1 Newsletter Number V-6 is dated 2002-11-15. It changes the official name of the country from East Timor to Timor-Leste. It explains that the United Nations Secretariat has issued a new terminology bulletin, in which Timor-Leste is given as the official name of the country in English, French, and Spanish. "East Timor" had been described as the provisional name of the country, since its independence. It remains to be seen whether the name "Timor-Leste" gains public acceptance. The second word should probably be pronounced like the English word "lest".

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-3 was published on 2002-08-20. It assigns codes to the thirteen districts of East Timor, as shown in the table below.

ISO 3166-1 Newsletter Number V-5 is dated 2002-05-21. It lists the formal name of East Timor as Democratic Republic of East Timor. It also changes the Alpha-2 ISO code for East Timor from TP to TL and the Alpha-3 code from TMP to TLS. The new codes derive from the Portuguese name of the new country, Timor Leste. The official languages of the country will be Portuguese and Tetum. English and Bahasa Indonesia will be working languages.

Change Notice 4 to FIPS PUB 10-4 is dated 2000-02-25. It lists East Timor as a separate country. Its FIPS country code is TT. Previously, East Timor had been listed as one of the divisions of Indonesia, with ID27 as its code.

Country overview: 

During the colonial period, part of the East Indian island of Timor was a Portuguese territory. The Portuguese inhabitants called it simply Timor. In English, it was more often referred to as Portuguese Timor. In 1951, East Timor became an overseas province of Portugal. In 1976, Indonesia unilaterally annexed the area. Portugal, among others, never recognized Indonesia's sovereignty. On 1999-08-30, a referendum was held in East Timor. The electorate favored independence by a 78.5% majority. The UNTAET (United Nations Transitional Administration for East Timor) relinquished its authority to the new Timorese government on 2002-05-20.

Other names of country: 

1. Bahasa Indonesia: Timor Timur, Loro Sae (obsolete)
2. Danish: Østtimor
3. Dutch: Oost-Timor, Democratische Republiek Oost-Timor (formal)
4. English: East Timor (obsolete)
5. Finnish: Itä-Timor
6. French: Timor m oriental, Timor-Leste
7. German: Osttimor, Timor-Leste n
8. Italian: Timor orientale, Timor Est
9. Norwegian: Øst-Timor
10. Portuguese: Timor n Oriental (m in Brazil), Timor-Leste, República f Democrática de Timor-Leste (formal), Timor Portugues (obsolete)
11. Spanish: Timor Oriental
12. Swedish: Östtimor
13. Icelandic: Tímor
14. Turkish: Doğu Timor, Timor-Leste Demokratik Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

Eastern part of the island of Timor. Timor is Malay for East, and leste is Portuguese for East, so the name of the country may be translated "East East".

Primary subdivisions: 

Timor-Leste is divided into thirteen districts.

There are several reports proposing or predicting that Timor-Leste will be reorganized into three provinces and one special region. They disagree about the details.

East Timor Study Group paper  (1999-07)			Flags of the World  informant (1999-10)		East Timor Action Network  report (2001-02)
Province	Districts	Capital	Province	Districts	Province	Districts
Matebian	Baucau, Lautem, Manatuto, Viqueque	Baucau	Eastern	Baucau, Lautem, Manatuto, Viqueque	Eastern East Timor	Baucau, Lautem, Manatuto, Viqueque
Ramelau	Aileu, Ainaro, Cova Lima, Manufahi	Ainaro	Southern	Ainaro, Cova Lima, Manufahi	Western East Timor	Ainaro, Bobonaro, Cova Lima, Ermera
Marobo	Bobonaro, Ermera, Liquiça	Maliana	Northern	Aileu, Bobonaro, Dili, Ermera, Liquiça	Central East Timor	Aileu, Dili, Liquiça, Manufahi
Oe-Cussi aut. terr.	Ambeno	Pante Macassar	Ocussi aut. reg.	Ambeno	Oecussi spec. area	Ambeno
Dili cap. terr.	Dili	Dili

Territorial extent: 

East Timor includes a small exclave near the western end of the island of Timor, known as Oé-Cussi, and formerly called Okusi Ambeno or other similar names. Atauro (or Kambing) Island and Jako Island are also included. The division of Timor between Portugal and the Netherlands was settled by treaty on 1904-10-01.

Change history: 

1. Under Portuguese administration, East Timor was divided into eight circunscrições.
2. Under Indonesian administration, East Timor was divided into thirteen kabupaten (regencies). ISO 3166-1 included a code for the entity, TP, presumably derived from "Timor Portugues."
3. 2002-05-20: Following a referendum, East Timor became independent of Indonesia. The regencies became the districts of the new country of East Timor. Later that year, it adopted Timor-Leste as its name.

Other names of subdivisions: 

Ambeno: Oecussi (variant)