States or Territories

States or territories are this atlas's first-level administrative divisions, the primary subnational units a sovereign country divides itself into directly, grouped here by the division's own official designation, State, Province, Region, Prefecture and the other terms real countries use, rather than by geography, because that designation is the fact a reader most reliably recognizes and it is what distinguishes one country's subnational structure from another's. Belongs here: a country's own first-level division, whatever it is called. Does not belong here: a sovereign country itself, held under this atlas's separate country entity type, or a city, which sits inside a state rather than being one.