Administrative division
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Administrative divisions[1] (also administrative units,[2][3][4] administrative regions,[5] subnational entities, or constituent states, as well as many similar generic terms) are geographical areas into which a particular independent sovereign state is divided. Such a unit usually has an administrative authority with the power to take administrative or policy decisions for its area.[3]
Usually, sovereign states have several levels of administrative division. Common names for the principal (largest) administrative divisions include:
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 principal administrative division of a country is sometimes 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][6] An alternative terminology is provided by the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics which terms the principal division as the second level or NUTS-2.
Administrative divisions are conceptually separate from
Communities united in a
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 autonomous regions or de facto constituent states of that country. This relationship is by some authors called a federacy or asymmetric federalism.[10] An example is the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan within Uzbekistan.[11]
Examples of administrative divisions
English terms
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 "
List
- Area
- Autonomous community
- Banner
- Barangay
- Barony
- Capital city
- Canton
- County
- Community
- Constituency
- Crown Dependency
- Department
- District
- Division
- Duchy
- Governorate
- Legal entity
- Hundred
- Federal subjects
- Kingdom
- Local council
- Municipality
- Oblast
- Parish
- Prefecture
- Principality
- Province
- Public body
- Region
- Republic
- Riding
- State
- Special administrative region
- Territory
- Theme
- Voivodeship
Urban or rural regions
General terms for these incorporated places include "municipality", "settlement", "locality", and "populated place".
Indigenous
Non-English terms
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
- GADM, a high-resolution database of country administrative areas.
- ISO 3166-2, specifically Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions — Part 2.
- List of administrative division name changes
- List of etymologies of administrative divisions
- List of administrative divisions by country
References
- ^ a b "Administrative divisions - The World Factbook". Central Intelligence Agency. Archived from the original on 2021-03-25. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
- ^ "General maps | Geospatial, location information for a better world". United Nations. Archived from the original on 2021-04-10. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
- ^ a b "02003R1059-20191113". EUR-Lex. Article 3(1). Archived from the original on 2021-05-21. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
- ^ a b "Global Administrative Unit Layers (GAUL)". GeoNetwork. FAO. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015.
- ^ "OECD Glossary of Statistical Terms - Administrative regions Definition". OECD Statistics. August 26, 2004. Archived from the original on 2021-08-27. Retrieved 2021-08-27.
- ^ "Second Administrative Level Boundaries | Geospatial Information Section & Statistics Division | United Nations". unsalb.org. Archived from the original on 2021-04-04. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
- ^ Bird, Richard M (2009). "Overview: Constituent units risk lengthy dependency on federal aid". Forum of Federations. Archived from the original on 2010-12-18. Retrieved 2009-11-01.
- ISBN 978-0-19-551771-2.
- ^ California Archived 2015-05-04 at the Wayback Machine. Encyclopædia Britannica. Accessed 2009-11-01.
- S2CID 201765897[permanent dead link]
- Human Rights Committee. Accessed 2009-11-01.
External links
- SALB Archived 2014-01-15 at the Wayback Machine 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)).