Administrative divisions of Yugoslavia

Politics of Yugoslavia
Constitution 1921 1931 1946 1953 1963 1974
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States Kingdom of Yugoslavia Banovina of Croatia SFR Yugoslavia SR Bosnia and Herzegovina SR Croatia SR Macedonia SR Montenegro SR Serbia SAP Kosovo SAP Vojvodina SR Slovenia
Breakup Yugoslav Wars (Slovenian Croatian Bosnian)
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Yugoslavia had various administrative divisions in different time periods.

1918–1922[]

Provinces of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

From 1918 to 1922, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes continued to be subdivided into the pre–World War I divisions (districts, counties and kingdoms) of the Habsburg Monarchy and the formerly independent Balkan kingdoms of the Serbia and the Montenegro.

The provinces (pokrajine) were:

• Slovenia
• Croatia and Slavonia
• Dalmatia
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Banat, Bačka, Baranja
• Serbia
  • Northern Serbia
  • Southern Serbia
• Montenegro

1922–1929[]

Oblasts of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

The Vidovdan Constitution of 1921 established the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes as a unitary state and, in 1922, 33 new administrative oblasts (provinces) ruled from the center were instituted:

1929–1941[]

Banovinas of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia

Banovina of Croatia

From 1929, the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was renamed Kingdom of Yugoslavia and was subdivided into nine new provinces called banovinas. Their borders were intentionally drawn so that they would not correspond either to boundaries between ethnic groups, or to pre–World War I imperial borders. They were named after various geographic features, mostly rivers. Slight changes to their borders were made in 1931 with the new Yugoslav Constitution. The banovinas were as follow:

• Drava Banovina (Dravska banovina), with its capital in Ljubljana (1929–1941)
• Sava Banovina (Savska banovina), with its capital in Zagreb (1929–1939)
• Littoral Banovina (Primorska banovina), with its capital in Split (1929–1939)
• Vrbas Banovina (Vrbaska banovina), with its capital in Banja Luka (1929–1941)
• Drina Banovina (Drinska banovina), with its capital in Sarajevo (1929–1941)
• Zeta Banovina (Zetska banovina), with its capital in Cetinje (1929–1941)
• Danube Banovina (Dunavska banovina), with its capital in Novi Sad (1929–1941)
• Morava Banovina (Moravska banovina), with its capital in Niš (1929–1941)
• Vardar Banovina (Vardarska banovina), with its capital in Skopje (1929–1941)
• The City Administration of Belgrade, together with Zemun and Pančevo was also an administrative unit.

As an accommodation to Yugoslav Croats, the Banovina of Croatia (Banovina Hrvatska) was formed in 1939 from a merger of the Littoral (Maritime) and Sava Banovinas, with some additional territory from the Vrbas and Zeta Banovinas. Like Sava, its capital was Zagreb.

1941–1944[]

Axis occupation and partition of Yugoslavia in World War II

During World War II, Kingdom of Yugoslavia was occupied and partitioned by the Axis powers and was divided into 3 Axis puppet states:

• Independent State of Croatia
• Italian governorate of Montenegro (later German occupied territory of Montenegro)
• the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia (including autonomous German-ruled Banat)

Other parts of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia were occupied by German, Italian, Hungarian, Bulgarian and Albanian Axis troops.

1945–1992[]

Republics and provinces of the SFR Yugoslavia

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was divided into 6 republics and two autonomous provinces:

• Serbia (including autonomous provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo)
• Montenegro
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Croatia
• Slovenia
• Macedonia

Federal subdivisions were further down divided into cities and srezs, second of which were constituted by several municipalities. In 1955 srez level units were abolished with only cities and municipalities remaining in place.

SR Croatia 1945–1992[]

Communities of Municipalities 1974-1986 in Socialist Croatia (colored differently).

In the Socialist Republic of Croatia srez level units were known as .^[1] Socialist epoch was a period of numerous reforms and changes in administrative organization. 1947 law divided Croatia into 81 kotar, 18 cities and 2278 local people's boards/units.^[1] In 1949 the Republic was divided into 6 oblasts (Bjelovar, Osijek, Karlovac, Rijeka, Split and Zagreb) and the City of Zagreb which remained in place only until 1951.^[1] In 1952 municipalities (općinas) were reintroduced alongside kotara and cities leading to significant reform in 1955 when the republic was divided into 299 municipalities and 27 kotars (decreasing the previous number of 737 municipalities and 96 kotars).^[1] Number of municipalities was further decreased in following years reaching the number of 111 municipalities in 1963.^[1] Kotars were abolished in 1967 while the new republican constitution of 1974 requested municipalities to join into Communities of Municipalities with participation becoming voluntary in 1988.^[1] Following the first multi party elections and before formal independence administrative division turned into prominent issue leading to the Croatian War of Independence. 1990 construction introduced counties of Croatia and formally reintroduced (in practice never implemented) kotars in the case of and Autonomous Kotar of Glina.^[1] The new counties were effectively defined and introduced only in 1992.

Successor states[]

Successor states of former Yugoslavia, 2008

After dissolution of Yugoslavia, in 1991–1992, five successor states were formed:

• Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1992–2003), in 2003 transformed into state union of Serbia and Montenegro, which in 2006 was dissolved into independent states of Serbia and Montenegro, in 2008 Kosovo^[a] declared its independence from Serbia.
• Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina later Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Republic of Croatia
• Republic of Slovenia
• Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, in 2019 renamed to Republic of North Macedonia in order to comply with the Prespa agreement and solve the Macedonia naming dispute, also formerly known as The Republic of Macedonia before joining the United Nations.

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