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Updates: 

I updated the main table to show legal populations with the statistical reference date 2010-01-01.

Country overview: 

Short name	FRENCH GUIANA
ISO code	GF
FIPS code	FG
Language	French (fr)
Time zone	-3
Capital	Cayenne

 

French Guiana has been linked to France throughout the 20th century, first as a colony, then as a remote but integral part of the country. French Guiana has a NUTS code of FR93 (as a region, or FR930 as a department), a department code of 973, and postal codes of the form 973xx, all of which are extensions of the French system.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Fransk Guyana
2. Dutch: Frans Guyana
3. English: Department of Guiana (formal)
4. French: Guyane f fran�aise
5. German: Franz�sisch-Guayana
6. Icelandic: Franska Gv�jana
7. Italian: Guyana f Francese, Guayana Francese (variant)
8. Norwegian: Guiana
9. Portuguese: Guiana f Francesa
10. Russian: Французская Гвиана
11. Spanish: Guayana f Francesa
12. Swedish: Franska Guyana
13. Turkish: Fransız Guyanası

Origin of name: 

Descriptive: French colony in the Guyana area.

Primary subdivisions: 

French Guiana is divided into two arrondissements.

Name	HASC	INSEE	Population	Area(km.�)	Area(mi.�)
Cayenne	GF.CY	9731	156,734	49,500	19,100
Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni	GF.SL	9732	74,433	40,500	15,600
2 arrondissements			231,167	90,000	34,700
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. INSEE: Arrondissement code according to Institut National de la Statistique et des �tudes �conomiques. Population: Legal population 2010-01-01. Capitals have the same names as their arrondissements.

Further subdivisions:

See the Communes of French Guiana page.

The arrondissements are further subdivided into 22 communes and 19 cantons.

Territorial extent: 

Most of French Guiana's islands belong to Cayenne. They include the �les Conn�table, �les R�mire, and �les du Salut, one of which is Devil's Island (�le du Diable).

The UN LOCODE page  for French Guiana 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: 

Cayenne: Old French cayenne: seaport hostelry.

Change history: 

1. 1930-07-06: French Guiana divided into two territories, French Guiana (along the Atlantic coast; estimated area 20,000 km.�) and Inini (inland; 70,000 km.�).
2. 1947-01-01: French Guiana and Inini reunited, changed from colony to d�partement d'outre-mer (overseas department). Nominally, this status is on a par with the metropolitan French departments.
3. 1951-09-14: French Guiana subdivided into two arrondissements, Cayenne (along the Atlantic coast) and Inini (inland).

Name	Pop-1946	Pop-1954	Pop-1961	Area(km.�)
Cayenne	24,118	24,629	30,525	12,500
Inini	5.042	3,234	2,980	78,500
Total	29,160	27,863	33,505	91,000
Pop-1946: 1946 census. Pop-1954: 1954-07-01 census. Pop-1961: 1961-10-09 census.

1. 1969-03-17: French Guiana reorganized into two arrondissements, Cayenne and Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni. Both began at the coast and extended inland to the southern end of the country; thus, new Cayenne was neither a subdivision nor an enlargement of old Cayenne.
2. 1973-09-25: French Guiana, while remaining an overseas department, became also a region of France.

Population history:

Arrondissement	1967-10-16	1974-10-16	1982-03-09	1990-03-15	1999-03-08	2010-01-01
Cayenne	36,270	45,892	61,587	88,689	119,341	156,734
Saint-Laurent du Maroni	8,122	9,233	11,435	25,989	37,449	74,433
Total	44,392	55,125	73,022	114,678	156,790	231,167

 

Data for 1967-1999 from source [4]; I assume that the 1967 data are proleptic, because the arrondissements were different then.

Sources: 

1. [1] Recensement de la population , Guyane. Institut national de la statistique et des �tudes �conomiques (INSEE), Paris, 2010-10. (Retrieved 2011-11-25.)
2. [2] Masson, Jean-Louis. Provinces, D�partements, R�gions. Paris: �ditions Fernand Lanore, 1984.
3. [3] Demographic Yearbook , 7th Ed. Statistical Office of the United Nations, New York, 1955 (retrieved 2011-08-20).
4. [4] R�sultats du recensement de la population  (retrieved 2013-05-04).
5. [5] Populations l�gales 2010 ... . Institut national de la statistique et des �tudes �conomiques (retrieved 2013-05-04).