Political division

World political divisions

A political division is a geographic region accepted to be in the jurisdiction of a particular governmental entity. The particular government entity varies as each organizes its operations by further divisions (subdivisions of the state) to further its tasks and satisfy its responsibilities.

On the large scale, a political division is typically a sovereign state (colloquially referred to as "country"), while on a smaller scale political divisions (sometimes called administrative divisions) include:

• federated states
• counties or parishes
• districts or provinces
• cities and towns
• smaller municipalities such as boroughs, towns, townships, districts, provinces, and other similar names which are also defined by the cognizant nation-state.

Other names for such units in various contexts include "Subnational entity", "administrative unit", "administrative area", "province", "district" and "regional government". Overall, all such distinctions are also called subnational entities by the United Nations. It is common to see political divisions drawn out on political maps.