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Updates: 

Sorin Cosoveanu sent me a link to the results of the 2014 census (source [3]). The document is hazy about the census date. It says that the decree takes effect the day after its publication, which would be 2015-02-02. But the authenticated populations are taken into consideration counting from 2015-01-01.

"Geopolitical Entities, Names, and Codes, Edition 2" (GENC), a U.S. standard that's supposed to correspond to ISO 3166-2, was issued on 2014-03-31. It gives codes for the three provinces. They are similar to the GEC codes shown below, except that they have hyphens in the middle. The ISO online search still doesn't list any subdivisions of New Caledonia.

GEC Update 17, dated 2014-09-30, adds codes for the three provinces. One of the names it lists is "Province Îles," which may be a mistake for "Îles Loyauté."

The status of New Caledonia was changed from overseas territory to overseas country (pays d'outre-mer) by the Nouméa agreement, adopted by Parliament on 1999-02-19.

Karem Abdalla has provided me with a spreadsheet showing the areas and 1996 populations of the provinces of New Caledonia.

Country overview: 

Short name	NEW CALEDONIA
ISO code	NC
GEC code	NC
Language	French (fr)
Time zone	+11
Capital	Nouméa

 

New Caledonia has been a French possession for the whole 20th century. In 1958 its status changed to territoire d'outre-mer (overseas territory). On 1959-12-27, its dependencies, the Wallis and Futuna Islands, were split from New Caledonia to become a separate overseas territory.

Other names of country: 

1. Dutch: Nieuw Caledonië
2. English: Territory of New Caledonia and Dependencies (formal)
3. French: Nouvelle-Calédonie, Nouvelle-Calédonie f et Dépendances fp (formal)
4. German: Neukaledonien n
5. Icelandic: Nýja-Kaledónia
6. Italian: Nuova Caledonia f
7. Norwegian: Ny Caledonia
8. Portuguese: Nova Caledónia f, Nova Caledônia (Brazil)
9. Russian: Новая Каледония
10. Spanish: Nueva Caledonia f
11. Turkish: Yeni Kaledonya

Origin of name: 

Caledonia is a poetic name for Scotland

Primary subdivisions: 

New Caledonia is divided into three provinces.

Province	HASC	GEC	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Îles Loyauté	NC.IL	NC01	43,561	1,981	765	Wé
Nord	NC.NO	NC02	68,278	7,348	2,837	Koné
Sud	NC.SU	NC03	208,756	9,407	3,632	Nouméa
Totals			320,595	18,736	7,234
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. GEC: Codes from Geopolitical Entities and Codes, a U.S. government standard. Population: 2015-01-01 census.

Postal codes: 

New Caledonian postal codes are five-digit numbers beginning with 988, following the French system.

Further subdivisions:

See the Communes of New Caledonia page.

The provinces are subdivided into 33 communes.

Territorial extent: 

1. New Caledonia consists of the large island of New Caledonia, some nearby smaller islands, and some remote tiny islands.
2. Îles Loyauté includes Lifou, Maré, Ouvéa, Tiga, and some nearby islets.
3. Nord includes the northern end of New Caledonia with the adjacent islands of Balabio, Baaba, Yandé, etc.; the Bélep Islands (Art, Pott, and some smaller ones); and probably the remote dependencies of Chesterfield Islands and Huon Islands.
4. Sud includes the southern end of New Caledonia with the adjacent islands of Ouen, Hugon, Ducos, Toupéti, etc.; Île des Pins and neighboring islets; and probably the remote dependency of Walpole Island.

The UN LOCODE page  for New Caledonia 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.

Change history: 

1946: New Caledonia census showed the colony divided into five arrondissements, plus seven dependencies, as shown. The dependencies of Futuna and Alofi and Wallis Archipelago split from New Caledonia in 1961 to form Wallis and Futuna. Isle of Pines corresponds to l'Île des Pins commune; Loyalty Islands corresponds to Îles Loyauté province; the other dependencies are still dependencies now.

Name	Typ	Population
Canala	a	1,950
Chesterfield Islands	d
Futuna and Alofi	d
Houaïlou	a	2,241
Huon Islands	d
Isle of Pines	d	14
Loyalty Islands	d	166
Nouméa	a	11,446
Ouégoa	a	1,191
Touho	a	1,729
Wallis Archipelago	d
Walpole	d
Total		49,000
Typ: a = arrondissement, d = dependency. Population: 1946 census, counting Europeans only, except in the Total. Source: Encyclopædia Britannica World Atlas, 1957 edition.

 

1988-11-09: New Caledonia reorganized into three provinces following a referendum. Before this date it had been divided into four provinces, formerly circonscriptions: Centre-Sud-Est (capital La Foa), Îles Loyauté, Nord, and Nouméa.

Other names of subdivisions: 

Îles Loyauté: Loyalty Islands (variant); Islas de la Lealtad (Spanish)

Population history:

Province	1956-12-06	1963-05-02	1969-03-11	1976-04-23	1983-04-15	1989-04-04	1996-04-16	2004-08-31	2009-07-27	2015-01-01
Îes Loyauté	10,878	11,409	12,248	14,518	15,510	17,912	20,877	22,080	17,436	43,561
Nord	24,176	25,781	27,181	32,021	31,310	34,526	41,413	44,474	45,137	68,278
Sud	33,426	49,329	61,150	86,694	98,548	111,735	134,546	164,235	183,007	208,756
Total	68,480	86,519	100,579	133,233	145,368	164,173	196,836	230,789	245,580	320,595

Sources: 

1. [1] Institut de la Statistique et des Études Économiques - Nouvelle-Calédonie  (retrieved 2005-10-18).
2. [2] Population des communes de la Nouvelle-Calédonie de 1956 à 2009 , ISEE (retrieved 2013-12-10).
3. [3] Décret n° 2015-98 du 28 janvier 2015  authenticating the results of the 2014 census of New Caledonia (dated 2015-02-01, retrieved 2015-12-18).