Administrative division, administrative unit, country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, 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.
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French comté denoting a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count (earl) or a viscount. Literal equivalents in other languages, derived from the equivalent of "count", are now seldom used officially, including comté, contea, contado, comtat, condado, Grafschaft, graafschap, and zhupa in Slavic languages; terms equivalent to commune/community are now often instead used.
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-localised and has limited powers. While in some countries, "government" is normally reserved purely for a national administration (government), the term local government is always used specifically in contrast to national government – as well as, in many cases, the activities of sub-national, first-level administrative divisions. Local governments generally act only within powers specifically delegated to them by law and/or directives of a higher level of government. In federal states, local government generally comprises a third or fourth tier of government, whereas in unitary states, local government usually occupies the second or third tier of government.
A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national government.
An arrondissement is any of various administrative divisions of France, Belgium, Haiti, certain other Francophone countries, as well as the Netherlands.
A prefecture is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain international church structures, as well as in antiquity a Roman district.
Belgium is a federal state comprising three communities and three regions that are based on four language areas. For each of these subdivision types, the subdivisions together make up the entire country; in other words, the types overlap.
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions of municipalities, school district, or political district.
Russia is divided into several types and levels of subdivisions.
An oblast is a type of administrative division within some Slavic areas, the Russian empire, and the Soviet Union; it continues to be used in Russia and some post-Imperial/Soviet states. An Oblast has no universal definition or exact comparison in English.
An okrug is a type of administrative division in some Slavic states. The word okrug is a loanword in English, alternatively translated as area, district, or region.
The German term Bezirk translated as "district" can refer to the following types of administrative divisions:
The administrative divisions of Ukraine are subnational administrative divisions within the geographical area of Ukraine under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Constitution. Ukraine is a unitary state with 3 levels of administrative divisions: 27 regions, 136 raions and 1469 hromadas.
A raion is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet states. The term is used for both a type of subnational entity and a division of a city. The word is from the French rayon, and is commonly translated as "district" in English.
An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located.
A Stadtbezirk is an administrative division in Germany, which is part of a larger city. It is translated as "borough". In Germany, Stadtbezirke usually only exist in a metropolis with more than 150,000 inhabitants. For example, Wattenscheid, which was a town in its own right until 1974, is now a Stadtbezirk within the city of Bochum in the Ruhr area of North Rhine-Westphalia. In Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate, the term Ortsbezirk is also used for districts of smaller cities.
Currently, there are 9 administrative divisions of Minsk, called raions (districts):
Sevastopol is a city on the Black Sea, located in the southwest of the Crimean Peninsula—a territory disputed between Russia and Ukraine as a result of the 2014 Crimean crisis. It has been under the de facto Russian control since March 2014, when it was incorporated into Russia as one of its federal subjects, with a status of a federal city. Being a disputed territory, Sevastopol has two sets of laws governing how its administrative and municipal divisions are set up. Under both Ukrainian and Russian laws, the city is administratively divided into four districts.
A district (raion) is an administrative and municipal division of a federal subject of Russia.
