State (administrative division)

A federated state (which may be referred to as a state, a province, a canton, a Land, etc.) is a territorial and constitutional community forming part of a federal union.^[1] Such states differ from sovereign states, in that they have transferred a portion of their sovereign powers to a federal government.^[2] Importantly, when states choose to federate, they lose their standing as persons of international law. Instead, the federal union as a single entity becomes the sovereign state, the person of international law.^[3] A federated state holds administrative jurisdiction over a defined geographic territory and is a form of regional government.

In some cases, a federation is created from a union of political entities, which are either independent, or dependent territories of another sovereign entity (most commonly a colonial power).^[4] In other cases, federated states have been created out of the regions of previously unitary states.^[5] Once a federal constitution is formed, the rules governing the relationship between federal and regional powers become part of the country's constitutional law and not international law.

In countries with federal constitutions, there is a division of power between the central government and the component states. These entities - states, provinces, cantons, Länder, etc. - are partially self-governing and are afforded a degree of constitutionally guaranteed autonomy that varies substantially from one federation to another.^[6] Depending on the form the decentralization of powers takes, a federated state's legislative powers may or may not be overruled or vetoed by the federal government. Laws governing the relationship between federal and regional powers can be amended through the federal constitution and state constitutions.

List of constituents by federation

The "federated units" in the table below have inherent governmental authority in the federation's constitutional system, while the "other units" are delegated authority by the federal government or are administered directly by it.

Federation	Federated units	Other units
Argentina[7]	23 provinces:  Buenos Aires  Catamarca  Chaco  Chubut  Córdoba  Corrientes  Entre Ríos  Formosa  Jujuy  La Pampa  La Rioja  Mendoza  Misiones  Neuquén  Río Negro  Salta  San Juan  San Luis  Santa Cruz  Santa Fe  Santiago del Estero  Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur  Tucumán	1 autonomous city:  Autonomous City of Buenos Aires
Australia[8]	6 states:  New South Wales  Queensland  South Australia    Tasmania  Victoria  Western Australia	10 territories:  Australian Capital Territory  Northern Territory  Christmas Island  Cocos (Keeling) Islands  Norfolk Island[9]  Jervis Bay Territory  Ashmore and Cartier Islands  Australian Antarctic Territory  Coral Sea Islands Territory  Heard Island and McDonald Islands
Austria[10]	9 states:  Vienna  Lower Austria  Upper Austria    Styria  Tyrol  Carinthia  Salzburg  Vorarlberg  Burgenland
Belgium[11]	3 regions: [Federated states 1] Flemish Region Walloon Region Brussels-Capital Region 3 communities: [Federated states 2] Flemish Community French Community German-speaking Community
Bosnia and Herzegovina	2 entities:[9]  Republika Srpska  Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina	1 self-governing district: Brčko (officially condominium of both constituents)
	Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is itself a federation with 10 cantons: Una-Sana • Posavina • Tuzla • Zenica-Doboj • Bosnian Podrinje • Central Bosnia • Herzegovina-Neretva • West Herzegovina • Sarajevo • West Bosnia
Brazil[12]	26 states: Acre Amapá Amazonas Pará Rondônia Roraima Tocantins Alagoas Bahia Ceará Maranhão Paraíba Pernambuco Piauí Rio Grande do Norte Sergipe Goiás Mato Grosso Mato Grosso do Sul Espírito Santo Minas Gerais Rio de Janeiro São Paulo Paraná Rio Grande do Sul Santa Catarina
	1 federal district: Distrito Federal (Brasília)[Federated states 3]
	5,564 municipalities[Federated states 4][13]
Canada[14]	10 provinces:  Alberta  British Columbia  Manitoba  New Brunswick  Newfoundland and Labrador    Nova Scotia  Ontario  Prince Edward Island  Quebec  Saskatchewan	3 territories:  Northwest Territories  Nunavut  Yukon
Comoros	3 islands:[9]  Anjouan Grande Comore Mohéli
Ethiopia[15]	9 regions: Afar • Amhara • Benishangul-Gumuz • Gambela • Harari • Oromiya • Somali • Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region • Tigray	2 chartered cities: Addis Ababa • Dire Dawa
Germany[16]	16 states:  Baden-Württemberg  Bavaria  Berlin  Brandenburg  Bremen  Hamburg  Hesse  Mecklenburg-Vorpommern  Lower Saxony  North Rhine-Westphalia  Rhineland-Palatinate  Saarland  Saxony  Saxony-Anhalt  Schleswig-Holstein  Thuringia
India[17]	28 states: West Bengal	7 union territories: Puducherry
Iraq[18]	18 governorates: Baghdād • Salāh ad-Dīn • Diyālā • Wāsit • Maysān • Al-Basrah • Dhī Qār • Al-Muthannā • Al-Qādisiyyah • Bābil • Karbalā' • An-Najaf • Al-Anbar • Nīnawā • Duhok • Arbīl • Kirkuk (or At-Ta'mim) • As-Sulaymāniyyah	Autonomous region:  Iraqi Kurdistan[9] (The region overlaps the area of the governorates)
Malaysia[19]	13 states:  Johor  Kedah  Kelantan  Malacca  Negeri Sembilan    Pahang  Penang  Perak  Perlis  Sabah  Sarawak  Selangor  Terengganu	3 federal territories:  Putrajaya  Kuala Lumpur  Labuan
Mexico[20]	31 states:  Aguascalientes  Baja California  Baja California Sur  Campeche  Chiapas  Chihuahua  Coahuila  Colima  Durango  Guanajuato  Guerrero  Hidalgo  Jalisco México State  Michoacán  Morelos  Nayarit  Nuevo León  Oaxaca  Puebla  Querétaro  Quintana Roo  San Luis Potosí  Sinaloa  Sonora  Tabasco  Tamaulipas  Tlaxcala  Veracruz  Yucatán  Zacatecas	1 federal district: Distrito Federal (Ciudad de México)
Micronesia, Federated States of[21]	4 states:  Chuuk  Kosrae  Pohnpei  Yap
Nepal	14 zones: Bagmati • Bheri • Dhawalagiri • Gandaki • Janakpur • Karnali • Koshi • Lumbini • Mahakali • Mechi • Narayani • Rapti • Sagarmatha • Seti
Nigeria[22]	36 states: Anambra • Enugu • Akwa Ibom • Adamawa • Abia • Bauchi • Bayelsa • Benue • Borno • Cross River • Delta • Ebonyi • Edo • Ekiti • Gombe • Imo • Jigawa • Kaduna • Kano • Katsina • Kebbi • Kogi • Kwara • Lagos • Nasarawa • Niger State • Ogun • Ondo • Osun • Oyo • Plateau • Rivers • Sokoto • Taraba • Yobe • Zamfara	1 capital territory: Abuja
Pakistan[23]	Sindh	Gilgit–Baltistan
		2 territories: Islamabad Capital Territory • Federally Administered Tribal Areas
Russian Federation[24][25]	21 republics:[9]  Adygea  Altai Republic  Bashkortostan  Buryatia  Chechnya  Chuvashia  Dagestan  Ingushetia  Kabardino-Balkaria  Kalmykia  Karachay-Cherkessia    Karelia  Khakassia  Mari El  Mordovia  Sakha  Tatarstan  Tuva  Udmurtia
	46 oblasts: Amur Arkhangelsk Astrakhan Belgorod Bryansk Chelyabinsk Irkutsk Ivanovo Kaliningrad Kaluga Kemerovo Kirov Kostroma Kurgan Kursk Leningrad Lipetsk Magadan Moscow Oblast Murmansk Nizhny Novgorod Novgorod Novosibirsk Omsk Orenburg Oryol Penza Pskov Rostov Ryazan Sakhalin Samara Saratov Smolensk Sverdlovsk Tambov Tomsk Tver Tula Tyumen Ulyanovsk Vladimir Volgograd Vologda Voronezh Yaroslavl
	9 krais: Altai Kamchatka Khabarovsk Krasnodar Krasnoyarsk Perm Primorsky Stavropol Zabaykalsky
	1 autonomous oblast:[9] Jewish Autonomous Oblast
	4 autonomous okrugs:[9] Chukotka Khanty–Mansia Nenets Yamalo-Nenets
	2 federal-level cities: Moscow Saint Petersburg
Saint Kitts and Nevis	2 states: Saint Kitts[Federated states 5]  Nevis
Somalia[26][27]	3 states:[Federated states 6]  Somaliland  •  Puntland  • Jubaland
South Sudan	10 states: Central Equatoria  • Eastern Equatoria  • Jonglei  • Lakes  • Northern Bahr el Ghazal  • Unity  • Upper Nile  • Warrap  • Western Bahr el Ghazal  • Western Equatoria
Sudan[28]	15 states: Al Jazirah • Blue Nile  • Sennar  • White Nile  • North Darfur • South Darfur  • West Darfur  • Kassala • Al Qadarif • Red Sea  • Khartoum  • Kurdufan • North Kurdufan • South Kurdufan  • Northern • River Nile
Switzerland[29]	26 cantons:  Zürich  Bern  Lucerne  Uri  Schwyz  Obwalden  Nidwalden  Glarus  Zug  Fribourg  Solothurn  Basel-Stadt  Basel-Landschaft  Schaffhausen  Appenzell Ausserrhoden  Appenzell Innerrhoden    St. Gallen  Graubünden  Aargau  Thurgau  Ticino  Vaud  Valais  Neuchâtel  Geneva  Jura
United Arab Emirates[30]	7 emirates:  Abu Dhabi  Ajman  Dubai  Fujairah  Ras al-Khaimah  Sharjah  Umm al-Quwain
United States of America[31]	50 states:  Alabama  Alaska  Arizona  Arkansas  California  Colorado  Connecticut  Delaware  Florida Georgia  Hawaii  Idaho  Illinois  Indiana  Iowa  Kansas  Kentucky  Louisiana  Maine  Maryland  Massachusetts  Michigan  Minnesota  Mississippi  Missouri  Montana  Nebraska  Nevada  New Hampshire  New Jersey  New Mexico  New York  North Carolina  North Dakota  Ohio  Oklahoma  Oregon  Pennsylvania  Rhode Island  South Carolina  South Dakota  Tennessee  Texas  Utah  Vermont  Virginia  Washington  West Virginia  Wisconsin  Wyoming	1 federal district: District of Columbia (Washington)
		1 incorporated territory: Palmyra Atoll
		Unincorporated territories:  American Samoa  Guam  Northern Mariana Islands  Puerto Rico  U.S. Virgin Islands Baker Island  • Howland Island  • Jarvis Island  • Johnston Atoll  • Kingman Reef  • Midway Atoll  • Navassa Island  • Wake Island (The United States also claims Bajo Nuevo Bank and Serranilla Bank).
Venezuela[32]	23 states: Amazonas Anzoátegui Apure Aragua Barinas Bolívar Carabobo Cojedes Delta Amacuro Falcón Guárico Lara Mérida Miranda Monagas Nueva Esparta Portuguesa Sucre Táchira Trujillo Vargas Yaracuy Zulia	1 federal district: Capital District (Caracas)
		1 federal dependency: Federal Dependencies of Venezuela

See also

• Associated state
• Constituent state
• Federation
• List of autonomous areas by country
• List of sovereign states
• Supranational union
• Table of administrative divisions by country

Notes

References