Latvia Municipalities (original) (raw)

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Updates:

I added 2011 census data from source [10].

Update 12 to Geopolitical Entities and Codes (formerly FIPS 10-4) is dated 2013-06-30. It changes the status of seven divisions from municipalities to republican cities. They are all divisions that are already identified as republican cities on this page.

Update 10 to Geopolitical Entities and Codes (formerly FIPS 10-4) is dated 2012-12-31. It adds Ādaži to the list of novadi and assigns it a code. I have already reported that same code for that same novads. This is a case where the board is reconciling changes made in one place but not in another.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter II-3 is dated 2011-12-15. For Latvia, it assigns codes to the new novadi, including the newest, Mērsraga. Update 8 to Geopolitical Entities and Codes, the successor to FIPS standard 10-4, is dated 2012-05-01. It assigns a code to Mērsraga.

Update 2 to "Geopolitical Entities and Codes" was published on 2010-11-30. In Latvia, it provides FIPS codes for the new novadi. The FIPS codes for several republican cities remain unchanged.

Erratum: In "Administrative Divisions of Countries", page 214, the ISO codes for two districts were inadvertently switched. The correct codes appear in the table under Change history.

Country overview:

Latvia in 1900 was part of the Russian Empire. On 1918-11-18, it declared its independence, with essentially its present borders. Latvia was occupied by the army of the Soviet Union in 1940, and became a constituent republic of the U.S.S.R. - the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic - on 1940-08-05. The United States never recognized the annexation. Latvia declared independence again, this time from a crumbling Soviet Union, on 1991-08-21.

Other names of country:

1. Danish: Lettland, Letland
2. Dutch: Letland, Republiek Letland (formal)
3. English: Republic of Latvia (formal)
4. Finnish: Latvia
5. French: Lettonie f
6. German: Lettland n
7. Icelandic: Lettland
8. Italian: Lettonia f
9. Latvian: Latvija, Latvijas Republika (formal)
10. Norwegian: Latvia, Republikken Latvia (formal)
11. Portuguese: Let�nia, Let�nia (Brazil), Rep�blica f da Let�nia f (formal)
12. Russian: Латвийская Республика (formal), Латвия
13. Spanish: Letonia
14. Swedish: Lettland
15. Turkish: Letonya Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name:

from ethnic name, possibly from Latve River near Vilnius

Primary subdivisions:

Latvia is divided into 110 novadi (sing. novads: amalgamated municipalities) and 9 pilsētas (sing. pilsēta: republican cities).

Postal codes:

Latvia uses four-digit postal codes, prefixed with "LV-".

Further subdivisions:

The amalgamated municipalities are subdivided into pagasti (parishes), pilsētas (cities), and areas called "pilsēta ar lauku teritoriju" (town with rural territory).

There are five planning regions, roughly corresponding to the old provinces (shown under Change history). The coverage areas are a bit different. Daugavpils district and city (now in Latgale planning region) were in Zemgale province; Dobele district (now in Zemgale) and Tukums (now in Riga) were in Kurzeme province; and Limbaži and Ogre districts (now in Riga) were in Vidzeme. There are also six NUTS regions (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics), defined by Eurostat. They are the same as the planning regions, except that Riga planning region is split into Riga (the city) and Pieriga (the remainder) for NUTS:

Territorial extent:

Olaine and Rauna municipalities each have two separate parts, separated by a corridor about 1 km. wide in each case. Daugavpils and Rēzekne municipalities completely surround the cities of the same names.

The UN LOCODE page for Latvia 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. Daugavpils: Latvian Daugava: Western Dvina (river), pils: palace
2. Riga: possibly Old Lithuanian ringi: curve (in the river)

Change history:

1. 1900: Present-day Latvia was in three Russian governments (guberniy): the southern part of Livonia, almost all of Courland (Kurland, Kurzeme), and the western part of Vitebsk.
2. 1918: Latvia was subdivided into provinces corresponding to its traditional regions.

1. 1991-08-21: Latvia became independent of the Soviet Union. At some point after this date, status of apriņķis changed to rajoni. Latvia then consisted of 26 rajoni (districts) and seven lielpilsēti (cities), as shown below. (FIPS translated those types as counties and municipalities, respectively.) The seven independent cities were geographically in the districts, but administratively separate. In the book "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries" I considered the cities as belonging to their districts. Here, following the standards, I list them separately.
2. FIPS uses different names for the types of primary subdivision: county instead of district, and municipality instead of city.

1. Note: Latvia uses four-digit postal codes. The numbers given represent the first two digits of the lowest postal code in the range for each division. "LV-" is prefixed to the postal code on correspondence from other countries.
2. The cities are all geographically situated in the districts of the same name, except for Jūrmala, which is in Riga district.
3. According to source [3], Latvia's local government consisted of seven cities (which we count as primary subdivisions in the table above), 72 towns, seven novads (amalgamated territories or amalgamated municipalities), and 475 pagasts (rural municipalities). Source [4] says there are 496 parishes, probably meaning the pagasts. Source [5] says, "the administrative subdivisions of the Republic of Latvia are the regions and municipalities: the great agglomerations, the towns and the pagasts (rural districts). There are in all 26 regions and 560 municipalities: seven great agglomerations, seventy towns and 483 pagasts." (My translation from the French.)
4. 2004-05-01: Latvia joined the European Union.
5. 2009-07-01: Latvia reorganized its local government, resulting in the divisions shown in the main table (yellow). Comparing before and after maps and areas, I conclude that part of Krāslava district was annexed to Aglona municipality (about 260 km.�); part of Valka district was annexed to Beverīna (about 210 km.�); part of Limbaži district was annexed to Krimulda (about 200 km.�); and part of Aizkraukle district was annexed to Vecumnieki (about 290 km.�). There were probably other smaller areas transferred.
6. 2010-01-28: Name of Valmiera municipality changed to Kocēnu.
7. 2010-12-18: Mersraga municipality split from Roja (former HASC code LV.RO).

Other names of subdivisions:

1. Aizkraukle: Stuchka (obsolete)
2. Cēsis: Wenden (German)
3. Daugavpils: D�naburg (German); Двинск (Russian-obsolete)
4. Jelgava: Mitau (German); Митава (Russian-obsolete)
5. Jēkabpils: Jakobstadt (German)
6. Kuldīga: Goldingen (German)
7. Liepāja: Libau (German); Либава (Russian-obsolete)
8. Ludza: Ludsen (German)
9. Rēzekne: Rositten (German); Режица (Russian-obsolete)
10. Riga: Riia (variant); Riika (Finnish)
11. Talsi: Talsen (German)
12. Tukums: Tukkum (German)
13. Valmiera: Wolmar (German)
14. Ventspils: Windau (German)

Sources:

1. [1] Geohive website (retrieved 2004-12-18 at http://212.204.253.230/cd/link.php?xml=lv&xsl=neo1&par1=1, now a dead link): population data attributed to the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia.
2. [2] The U.N. Economic Commission for Europe issued a study which says, "At present, Latvia is divided into 26 counties and seven municipalities.... However, the administrative structure at local and regional level is undergoing extensive restructuring and there are plans for a further decentralization." (Retrieved 2004-12-18 at http://www.unece.org/env/epr/studies/latvia/chapter00.pdf, now a dead link.)
3. [3] Baltic Sea States Subregional Co-operation (retrieved 2004-12-18 at http://www.bsssc.com/pages/subregions/latvia.htm, now a dead link).
4. [4] Latvia Tourism (retrieved 2004-12-18 at http://www.latviatourism.lv/celv/karte.php?chsmall=1, now a dead link).
5. [5] Structure and working of local and regional democracy: Latvia: Situation in 1998. European Council, 1998 (retrieved 2004-12-18 at http://www.coe.int/T/F/Affaires\_juridiques/D%E9mocratie\_locale\_et\_r%E9gionale/Comit%E9\_directeur\_(CDLR)/Publications/Structure\_et\_fonctionnement/Lettonie.pdf, now a dead link).
6. [6] The Ministry of Regional Development and Local Government of the Republic of Latvia (retrieved 2009-11-16)
7. [7] The Central Election Commission of Latvia (Latvian; retrieved 2009-11-16).
8. [8] Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia (retrieved 2009-11-16).
9. [9] History and progress of territorial reform in Latvia (retrieved 2009-09-28; has numerous maps).
10. [10] TSG11-01. Resident population on 1 March 2011 by territorial unit and sex . Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia (retrieved 2014-03-31).