The "Subdivisions of the World" Quiz 2021 Change Log

Every July I update the quiz "ALL First-Level Subdivisions of the World With a Map", as well as each continent quiz, this blog will show the changes I have made to the quizzes in 2021.

First things first, as a general rule, the source that I use now for my first-level subdivision (which I will call FLS from now on) quizzes is Wikipedia's List of administrative divisions by country page.

The Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan, having its own prime minister and legislature, is considered as being its own FLS despite being a separate "government layer" than the districts in the mainland.

In the Bahamas we see the addition of the barrier island of Green Turtle Cay which in 2011, the ISO deleted it from the Bahamas database, probably by mistake, hence why I did not include it on my World and North America quizzes before now.

Our first actually new FLS, Sidama in Ethiopia separated from the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region (yes that is the actual name of the subdivision, SNNPR) on the 18th of June, 2020.

<footnote>

You may have noticed this but that was before the supposed July 2020 update, the reason being that I did not know that the FLS separated from SNNPR at that time.

</footnote>

On the Oceanian country of Fiji, the FLSes are actually the four divisions, instead of the fourteen provinces, with the self-governing island of Rotuma still having FLS status.

In Greece, the FLSes are actually the seven decentralized administrations, instead of the more well known thirteen regions, with the monastic republic of Mount Athos still having FLS status.

Finally another new FLS, in India, the union territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman and Diu, merged on the 26th of January, 2021, forming the union territory with a very creative name of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

Since according to JetPunk standards Palestine is considered a disputed territory, Judea and Samaria (which are generally considered to be a part of Palestine) will no longer be treated as FLS of Israel.

Due to misleading information provided by English Wikipedia, subdivisions of Ivory Coast have been badly outdated. In 2014, the country abolished districts (with the exception of Abidjan and Yamoussoukro) and regions that have been second-level subdivision until then, became FLS.

On the 10th of June, 2020, Latvia approved a municipal reform that would reduce the 110 municipalities and nine republic cities to 42 local government units consisting of 35 municipalities and seven state cities, on the 1st of June, 2021, it was ruled that Varakļāni should still have municipality status, making it 43 LGUs. the changes came into effect on the 1st of July, 2021.

In the Netherlands, the twelve provinces and three special municipalities are considered to be second-level. They are merged to make the actual first level subdivision of the constituent country of the Netherlands, with Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten still having FLS status.

In New Zealand, the sixteen mainland regions, as well as the territories of the Chatham Islands and Tokelau are considered to be second-level. They are merged to make the actual first level subdivision of the constituent country of New Zealand, with the Cook Islands and Niue still having FLS status.

And another new FLS, the comarca of Naso Tjër Di in Panama separated from the province of Bocas del Toro on the 4th of December, 2020, bringing the total to fourteen FLSes, ten being provinces and four being comarcas.

For Peru, we see the addition of Lima Province, not to be confused with Lima Region, which is also a FLS. The province is the only one in the country not belonging to any of the 25 regions, which caused the initial confusion.

As it turns out, Saint Lucia has changed its subdivisions at some point. It likely happened in 2017, but it's uncertain due to a lack of information.

The number of districts was changed from 11 to 10.

In the Seychelles we see the addition of Perseverance Island I and Perseverance Island II, which I literally have no idea what the borders of those are other than they are... well... on Perseverance Island.

In Thailand we see the removal of the city of Pattaya, I don't know why I had it included as a separate city, but it's no longer an FLS now. The city is part of the province of Chonburi.

And finally, in Uganda we see the addition of the district of Terego, which separated from Arua district in July of 2020.

<footnote>

The district of Lusot, which separated from Moroto in July of 2019, has no maps for it, I looked everywhere for it, Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, Swahili Wikipedia, you name it, but apparently it does not exist.

</footnote>

Kiribati and Vatican City do not have official subdivisions, so they are now omitted from Oceania and Europe quizzes, respectively, as well as World FLS.

On my last blog I said that we were making a FLS quiz on every single country, which we finally finished in June! See the spreadsheet here.

Special thanks to Jakub, Saturn, and ThatOnePunk for helping me write the blog.