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Updates: 

Update 7 to Geopolitical Entities and Codes, the successor to FIPS standard 10-4, was issued with the date 2012-02-01. It reflects the changes that have occurred in the country's subdivisions since 1980. It shows Tobago as a single division, though. It also changes the spelling of Port-of-Spain to Port of Spain.

International standard ISO 3166-2 was published on December 15, 1998. It superseded ISO/DIS 3166-2 (draft international standard). For Trinidad and Tobago, the draft standard showed eight counties, three municipalities, and one ward. The final standard shows eleven regions and five municipalities. Most of the codes are different, but the code "SGE" was Saint George in the old scheme and Sangre Grande in the new one. The change in the standard corresponds to an actual change in the administrative division of Trinidad and Tobago.

Country overview: 

Short name	TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
ISO code	TT
FIPS code	TD
Language	English (en)
Time zone	-4
Capital	Port of Spain

 

Trinidad and Tobago was a British colony for the first part of the 20th century. On 1962-08-31 it became an independent member of the British Commonwealth.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Trinidad og Tobago, Republikken Trinidad og Tobago (formal)
2. Dutch: Trinidad en Tobago, Republiek Trinidad en Tobago (formal)
3. English: Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (formal)
4. Finnish: Trinidad ja Tobago
5. French: Trinité-et-Tobago f
6. German: Trinidad und Tobago n
7. Icelandic: Trínidad og Tóbagó
8. Italian: Trinidad e Tobago
9. Norwegian: Trinidad og Tobago, Republikken Trinidad og Tobago (formal)
10. Portuguese: Trindade e Tobago, Trinidad f e Tobago m (Brazil), Trinidade e Tobago (Brazil), República f de Trindade e Tobago (formal)
11. Russian: Республика Тринидад и Тобаго (formal)
12. Spanish: Trinidad y Tobago, Trinidad y Tabago, República f de Trinidad y Tobago (formal)
13. Swedish: Trinidad och Tobago
14. Turkish: Trinidad ve Tobago Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

Spanish Trinidad: Trinity, named by Columbus on sighting three peaks; Carib tavaco: tobacco pipe

Primary subdivisions: 

Trinidad and Tobago is divided into eleven regions, three boroughs, and two cities.

Name	Type	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital	Former
Arima	bor	TT.AR	ARI	TD01	28,310	11	4	Arima	Arima
Chaguanas	bor	TT.CH	CHA	TD13	61,897	60	23	Chaguanas	Caroni
Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo	reg	TT.CT	CTT	TD14	152,483	720	278	Couva	Caroni, Saint George, Victoria
Diego Martin	reg	TT.DM	DMN	TD15	86,805	128	49	Petit Valley	Saint George
Eastern Tobago	reg	TT.ET	ETO	TD11	14,887	215	83	Roxborough	Tobago
Mayaro/Rio Claro	reg	TT.MR	RCM	TD16	30,298	853	329	Rio Claro	Mayaro, Nariva
Penal/Debe	reg	TT.PD	PED	TD17	77,756	247	95	Penal	Saint Patrick, Victoria
Point Fortin	bor	TT.PF	PTF	TD18	17,755	24	9	Point Fortin	Point Fortin
Port of Spain	cit	TT.PS	POS	TD05	37,965	13	5	Port of Spain	Port of Spain
Princes Town	reg	TT.PT	PRT	TD19	85,682	621	240	Princes Town	Victoria
San Fernando	cit	TT.SF	SFO	TD10	48,784	19	7	San Fernando	San Fernando
Sangre Grande	reg	TT.SN	SGE	TD21	58,311	899	347	Sangre Grande	Saint Andrew, Saint David
San Juan/Laventille	reg	TT.SL	SJL	TD20	136,759	220	85	Laventille	Saint George
Siparia	reg	TT.SI	SIP	TD22	77,010	510	197	Siparia	Saint Patrick
Tunapuna/Piarco	reg	TT.TP	TUP	TD23	170,767	527	204	Tunapuna	Saint George
Western Tobago	reg	TT.WT	WTO	TD11	29,303	88	34	Scarborough	Tobago
16 divisions					1,114,772	5,155	1,989
Type: regions (reg), boroughs (bor), and cities (cit). HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: District codes from ISO 3166-2. For full identification in a global context, prefix "TT-" to the code (ex: TT-SIP represents Siparia). FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Population and area: 2000-05-15 census. Former: Pre-1990 divisions corresponding roughly to the territory of the modern division.

 

Note: the census data subdivide Tobago, not into Eastern and Western regions, but into seven parishes. Eastern Tobago includes the parishes of Saint George (2000 population: 4,797), Saint Mary (2,562), Saint Paul (4,748), and Saint John (2,780). Western Tobago includes Saint Andrew (12,838), Saint Patrick (9,847), and Saint David (6,618).

Territorial extent: 

1. Tobago consists of the islands of Tobago, Little Tobago, and Saint Giles' Islands.
2. The other divisions lie mainly on the island of Trinidad. In addition, Saint George includes the islands of Monos, Chacachacare, Gaspar Grande, and Huevos.

Change history: 

1. In 1900, Trinidad and Tobago was a British colony.
2. 1945-06: County councils were established. Counties were Caroni, Mayaro, Nariva, Saint Andrew, Saint David, Saint George, Saint Patrick, Tobago, and Victoria. In addition, the borough of Arima and the cities of Port of Spain and San Fernando were independent of any county.
3. 1962-08-31: Trinidad and Tobago became an independent member of the British Commonwealth.
4. 1980: Tobago House of Assembly was formed as the organ of local government for Tobago. Status of Tobago changed to ward.
5. 1980-04-30: Point Fortin municipality split from Saint Patrick county. The resulting divisions were as shown in this table.

County	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Typ	Pop-46	Pop-87	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Arima	TT.AR	ARI	TD01	mu	8,069	28,500	10	4	Arima
Caroni	TT.CA	CAR	TD02	cn	61,739	167,300	554	214	Chaguanas
Mayaro	TT.MA	MAY	TD03	cn	4,196	33,200	378	146	Rio Claro, Nariva
Nariva	TT.NA	NAR	TD04	cn	11,815		534	206	Rio Claro
Point Fortin	TT.PF	PTF		mu		17,300			Point Fortin
Port of Spain	TT.PS	POS	TD05	mu	92,793	58,300	6	3	Port-of-Spain
Saint Andrew	TT.SA	SAN	TD06	cn	23,285	57,800	733	283	Sangre Grande
Saint David	TT.SD	SDA	TD07	cn	5,037		205	79	Sangre Grande, Saint Andrew
Saint George	TT.SG	SGE	TD08	cn	138,362	435,800	917	354	Tunapuna
Saint Patrick	TT.SP	SPA	TD09	cn	69,183	122,800	676	261	Siparia
San Fernando	TT.SF	SFO	TD10	mu	28,842	33,100	2	1	San Fernando
Tobago	TT.TO	TOB	TD11	wd	27,208	44,300	300	116	Scarborough
Victoria	TT.VI	VIC	TD12	cn	87,441	218,700	813	314	Princes Town
13 divisions					557,970	1,217,100	5,128	1,981
Typ: county (cn), municipality (mu), or ward (wd). HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Pop-46: 1946-04-09 census. Pop-87: 1987 estimate. The Central Statistics Office reports Mayaro and Nariva as a unit, and Saint Andrew and Saint David as another unit.

1. 1990: According to the Ministry of Local Government (source [3]), seven new boroughs or counties were created. I haven't been able to find any documentation on the resulting divisions.
2. 1991-10-01: Chaguanas municipality split from Caroni county.
3. 1992: Local government reorganized into the divisions shown in the table above.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Port of Spain: Port-of-Spain (variant); Puerto España (Spanish)
2. San Juan/Laventille: San Juan/Lavantille (variant)
3. Tobago: Tabago (Spanish)

Sources: 

1. [1] Demographic Yearbook , 7th Ed. Statistical Office of the United Nations, New York, 1955 (retrieved 2011-08-20).
2. [2] Census results for 2000 are from the Trinidad and Tobago Central Statistical Office website, http://www.cso.gov.tt/census2000 (dead link, retrieved 2005-06-04).
3. [3] Ministry of Local Government website, http://www.molg.gov.tt/contents.htm (dead link, retrieved 1999-09-23).
4. [4] Profile of Local Government Corporations, http://www.nalis.gov.tt/agri/LupapCD/Table%20Profile%20Local%20Government.htm (dead link, retrieved 2003-02-18). Had area and population data "compiled by the Land Use Policy & Administration Project (LUPAP) from data supplied by CSO – Mapping Unit and Local Area Concept Plans (1999)".