- Country subdivision
Country subdivision refers to the division of a
country 's territory for the sake of its administration, description or other such purpose. The resulting units of division are known generically as "country subdivisions". Unlike geographical or geomorphological areas such as basins,desert s,valley s and the like, country subdivisions are abstract creations intended to make it easier to run the country. There are several types of country subdivisions, including:administrative divisions ,electoral division s,census division s, development regions,time zone s, etc.Administrative divisions
The most common type of country subdivision are
administrative division s, viz. divisions such asprovince s,district s and municipalities. A few countries have administrative divisions that are themselves called "divisions" or "subdivisions".Electoral and census divisions
The second most common types of country subdivision are electoral and
census division s such as constituencies, wards,census geographic unit s,census metropolitan area s, andcensus subdivision . Some countries, however, use these terms (or their native equivalents) to identify types of administrative division; for example,Namibia 's constituencies or those countries listed in the articleWard (administrative division) . In North America, "Census division" and "census subdivision" are themselves types of census divisions.Other subdivision types
Other types of country subdivision include
statistical division s,judicial district s,police precinct s, planning ordevelopment region s,school district s,special-purpose district s,time zone s,transport region s, andwater district s.ISO 3166-2
According to the ISO's website,
ISO 3166-2 ("Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions - Part 2: Country subdivision code") uses the term "country subdivision" to denote "principal subdivisions (e.g. provinces or states)" [http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/04background-on-iso-3166/what-is-iso3166.html] .See also
*
Administrative division
**Table of administrative country subdivisions by country
*Matrix of country subdivisions
*Political division (another name for "country")
*Politics of country subdivisions
*Supranationalism
*Trade bloc
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