ISO 3166-2 Newsletter number II-1, dated 2010-02-03, has changes to the listing for the Marshall Islands. Some of the island names have been changed to variants. Ujelang (former ISO code UJL, uninhabited) has been dropped from the listing, and Jabat (inhabited) has been added.

Note: the Republic of the Marshall Islands is so small that I have listed it as having only one primary division, consisting of the entire country. The table on this page shows municipalities, which I classify as secondary divisions.

International standard ISO 3166-2 was published on 1998-12-15. It superseded ISO/DIS 3166-2 (draft international standard), which came out in fall 1996. The draft standard shows no administrative subdivisions of the Marshall Islands. The final standard shows 24 municipalities. They appear to be a subset of the 33 municipalities recognized by FIPS PUB 6-4. It also shows two chains of islands, which are a higher level of subdivision than the municipalities (i.e., each chain includes numerous municipalities).

The change is inconsistent with ISO's usual practice. About twenty small island nations had subdivisions that were listed in the draft standard, but were dropped from the final standard as being "not relevant". The Marshall Islands is even smaller than many of those twenty.

The table below shows all of the municipalities listed by FIPS, with ISO codes where they exist.

Municipalities	HASC	FIPS	ISO	Chain	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)
Ailinginae	MH.MH.AI	007		Ralik	0	3	1
Ailinglaplap	MH.MH.AP	010	ALL	Ralik	1,959	15	6
Ailuk	MH.MH.AK	030	ALK	Ratak	513	5	2
Arno	MH.MH.AR	040	ARN	Ratak	2,069	13	5
Aur	MH.MH.AU	050	AUR	Ratak	537	6	2
Bikar	MH.MH.BR	060		Ratak	0	0	0
Bikini	MH.MH.BN	070		Ralik	13	6	2
Bokak	MH.MH.BO	073		Ratak	0	3	1
Ebon	MH.MH.EB	080	EBO	Ralik	902	6	2
Enewetak	MH.MH.EN	090	ENI	Ralik	853	6	2
Erikub	MH.MH.ER	100		Ratak	0	2	1
Jabat	MH.MH.JB	110	JAB	Ralik	95	1	0
Jaluit	MH.MH.JL	120	JAL	Ralik	1,669	11	4
Jemo	MH.MH.JE	130		Ratak	0	0	0
Kili	MH.MH.KI	140	KIL	Ralik	774	1	0
Kwajalein	MH.MH.KW	150	KWA	Ralik	10,902	16	6
Lae	MH.MH.LA	160	LAE	Ralik	322	1	1
Lib	MH.MH.LB	170	LIB	Ralik	147	1	0
Likiep	MH.MH.LK	180	LIK	Ratak	527	10	4
Majuro	MH.MH.MJ	190	MAJ	Ratak	23,676	10	4
Maloelap	MH.MH.ML	300	MAL	Ratak	856	10	4
Mejit	MH.MH.ME	310	MEJ	Ratak	416	2	1
Mili	MH.MH.MI	320	MIL	Ratak	1,032	16	6
Namorik	MH.MH.NK	330	NMK	Ralik	772	3	1
Namu	MH.MH.NU	340	NMU	Ralik	903	6	2
Rongelap	MH.MH.RL	350	RON	Ralik	19	8	3
Rongrik	MH.MH.RR	360		Ralik	0	2	1
Toke	MH.MH.TO	385		Ratak	0	1	0
Ujae	MH.MH.UJ	390	UJA	Ralik	440	2	1
Ujelang	MH.MH.UL	400		Ralik	0	2	1
Utirik	MH.MH.UT	410	UTI	Ratak	433	2	1
Wotho	MH.MH.WH	420	WTH	Ralik	145	4	2
Wotje	MH.MH.WJ	430	WTJ	Ratak	866	8	3
33 municipalities					50,840	181	70
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. FIPS: Code from FIPS PUB 6-4. ISO: Province codes from ISO 3166-2. For full identification in a global context, prefix "MH-" to the code (ex: MH-KWA represents Kwajalein). Chain: The atolls of the Marshall Islands lie in two rows, the Ralik chain (ISO code: L) to the west and the Ratak chain (T) to the east. Population: 1999 census.

 

FIPS PUB 6-4 divides the Marshall Islands into municipalities. It assigns a three-digit code to each of them. When the FIPS 5-2 and 6-4 codes are concatenated, as in 68140 for Kili, the result is a code that uniquely identifies a county-equivalent unit in the United States.

Other names of subdivisions:

Source [2] has an unusually thorough list of alternate names for the atolls. In a few cases, the names in the table above are missing, but the identification should be straightforward. It also gives the latitudes and longitudes of the islands.

1. Ailinglaplap: Ailinglapalap (variant)
2. Enewetak: Eniwetok (variant)
3. Namorik: Namdrik (variant)

Population history:

Municipality	1958	1967	1973	1980	1988	1999
Ailinglaplap	1,288	1,195	1,100	1,385	1,715	1,959
Ailuk	419	384	335	413	488	513
Arno	1,037	1,273	1,120	1,487	1,656	2,069
Aur	241	361	300	444	438	537
Bikini	0	0	75	0	10	13
Ebon	819	836	740	887	741	902
Enewetak	0	0	0	542	715	853
Jabat	0	0	70	72	112	95
Jaluit	1,098	1,113	925	1,450	1,709	1,669
Kili	267	309	360	489	602	774
Kwajalein	1,284	3,540	5,469	6,624	9,311	10,902
Lae	165	131	154	237	319	322
Lib	44	142	98	98	115	147
Likiep	636	430	406	481	482	527
Majuro	3,415	5,249	10,290	11,791	19,664	23,676
Maloelap	454	494	432	614	796	856
Mejit	346	320	271	325	445	416
Mili	412	582	538	763	854	1,032
Namorik	523	547	431	617	814	772
Namu	482	597	493	654	801	903
Rongelap	264	189	165	235	0	19
Ujae	167	191	209	309	448	440
Ujelang	172	251	342	0	0	0
Utirik	198	269	217	336	409	433
Wotho	71	0	61	85	90	145
Wotje	361	396	425	535	646	866
Total	14,163	18,799	25,045	30,873	43,380	50,840

 

From 1946 to 1980, the population of Enewetak was evacuated to Ujelang because of nuclear testing. A similar, but more complex, evacuation removed the people of Bikini to Kili. In the 1973 census, 19 people were included in the total but did not state their municipality. Municipalities are not listed here if they had zero population during the entire period (source [1]).

Sources:

1. [1] 1998-99 Yearbook of the Marshall Islands (retrieved 2004-12-29 at http://marshall.csu.edu.au/Marshalls/html/STATS/RMIYearbook1998-99.pdf, now a dead link).
2. [2] Flags of the World  website (retrieved 2001-07-12 at http://life.csu.edu.au/marshall/html/SEQNAMES.html, now a dead link).