Administrative division

Administrative division,[1] administrative unit,[2][3][4] country subdivision,[5] administrative region,[6] subnational entity, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, independent sovereign state (country) is divided. Such a unit usually has an administrative authority with the power to take administrative or policy decisions for its area.[3]

For administrative division in the sense of a company department, see Division (business).
"Political division" redirects here. For division into political factions, see Political polarization.
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World administrative levels

Usually, the countries have several levels of administrative divisions. The common names for the principal (largest) administrative divisions are: states (i.e. "subnational states", rather than sovereign states), provinces, lands, oblasts, governorates, cantons, prefectures, counties, regions, departments, and emirates.[5] These, in turn, are often subdivided into smaller administrative units known by names such as circuits, counties, comarcas, raions, judets or districts, which are further subdivided into the municipalities, communes or communities constituting the smallest units of subdivision (the local governments).

The exact number of the levels of administrative divisions and their structure largely varies by country (and sometimes within a single country). Usually, the smaller the country is (by area or population), the fewer levels of administrative divisions it has. For example, the Vatican does not have any administrative subdivisions and Monaco has only one level, while such countries as France and Pakistan have five levels each. The United States is composed of states, possessions, territories, and a federal district, each with varying numbers of subdivisions.

The principal administrative division of a country might be called the "first-level (or first-order) administrative division" or "first administrative level". Its next subdivision might be called "second-level administrative division" or "second administrative level" and so on.[1][4][7]

Administrative divisions are conceptually separate from dependent territories, with the former being an integral part of the state and the other being only under some lesser form of control. However, the term "administrative division" can include dependent territories as well as accepted administrative divisions (for example, in geographical databases).

Communities united in a federation under a federal government are more specifically known as federated states. Federated state may be referred to not only as a state, but also as a province, a region, a canton, a land, a governorate, an oblast, an emirate or a country.[8][9][10]

Administrative units that are not federated or confederated but enjoy a greater degree of autonomy or self-government than other territories within the same country can be considered constituent states of that country. This relationship is by some authors called a federacy.[11] An example is the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan within Uzbekistan.[12]

Examples of administrative divisions

English terms
World political divisions

In many of the following terms originating from British cultural influence, areas of relatively low mean population density might bear a title of an entity one would expect to be either larger or smaller. There is no fixed rule, for "all politics is local" as is perhaps well demonstrated by their relative lack of systemic order. In the realm of self-government, any of these can and does occur along a stretch of road—which for the most part is passing through rural unsettled countryside. Since the terms are administrative political divisions of the local regional government their exact relationship and definitions are subject to home rule considerations, tradition, as well as state statute law and local governmental (administrative) definition and control. In British cultural legacy, some territorial entities began with fairly expansive counties which encompass an appreciably large area, but were divided over time into a number of smaller entities. Within those entities are the large and small cities or towns, which may or may not be the county seat. Some of the world's larger cities culturally, if not officially, span several counties, and those crossing state or provincial boundaries have much in common culturally as well, but are rarely incorporated within the same municipal government. Many sister cities share a water boundary, which quite often serves as a border of both cities and counties. For example, Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts appear to the casual traveler as one large city, while locally they each are quite culturally different and occupy different counties.

List

Urban or rural regions

General terms for these incorporated places include "municipality," "settlement," "locality," and "populated place."

Indigenous

Non-English terms
For a more comprehensive list, see List of terms for administrative divisions.

Due to variations in their use worldwide, consistency in the translation of terms from non-English to English is sometimes difficult to maintain.

See also

References
  1. "Administrative divisions - The World Factbook". www.cia.gov. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  2. "General maps | Geospatial, location information for a better world". www.un.org. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  3. Article 3(1). "EUR-Lex - 02003R1059-20191113 - EN - EUR-Lex". eur-lex.europa.eu. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
  4. "Global Administrative Unit Layers (GAUL)". FAO. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015.
  5. "ISO 3166-2:2020". ISO. Retrieved 2021-03-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. "OECD Glossary of Statistical Terms - Administrative regions Definition". stats.oecd.org. Retrieved 2021-08-27.
  7. "Second Administrative Level Boundaries | Geospatial Information Section & Statistics Division | United Nations". 2021-03-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. Constituent Units Risk Lengthy Dependency on Federal Aid Archived 2010-12-18 at the Wayback Machine. Bird, Richard M (2009). Forum of Federations. Accessed 2009-11-01.
  9. The Australian National Dictionary: Fourth Edition, pg 1395. (2004) Canberra. ISBN 978-0-19-551771-2.
  10. California. Encyclopædia Britannica. Accessed 2009-11-01.
  11. Stepan, Alfred (1999), "Federalism and Democracy: Beyond the U.S. Model" (PDF), Journal of Democracy, 10 (4): 19–34, doi:10.1353/jod.1999.0072, S2CID 201765897
  12. International Covenant On Civil And Political Rights, p 5. United Nations Human Rights Committee. Accessed 2009-11-01.
  • SALB Second Administrative Level Boundaries (SALB) programme of the United Nations.
  • Statoids, an international convention with standardized two-letter-based multi-level summaries of administrative divisions worldwide (e.g. GH.AH.AS represents Adansi South (AE) in the Accra Home (AH) region of Ghana (GH)).
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