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Countries with at least one area labelled "autonomous" or defined as such by law

An autonomous administrative division (also referred to as an autonomous area, entity, unit, region, subdivision, or territory) is a subdivision or dependent territory of a country that has a degree of self-governance, or autonomy, from an external authority. Typically, it is either geographically distinct from the rest of the country or populated by a national minority. Decentralization of self-governing powers and functions to such divisions is a way for a national government to try to increase democratic participation or administrative efficiency or to defuse internal conflicts. Countries that include autonomous areas may be federacies, federations, or confederations. Autonomous areas can be divided into territorial autonomies, subregional territorial autonomies, and local autonomies.

List of autonomous subdivisions by designation

Designation	Division	State	Notes
State	Azad Kashmir	Pakistan	Azad Kashmir is a self-governing state under Pakistan, but under Pakistan's constitution the state is not formally a part of the country as the Kashmir conflict has not yet been resolved.
Banner	Oroqen	People's Republic of China	In effect, these are autonomous counties.
	Evenk
	Morin Dawa Daur
City	Buenos Aires	Argentina	Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina
	Ceuta	Spain	The autonomous cities of Spain are two exclaves located on the north coast of North Africa surrounded by Morocco, separated from the Iberian peninsula by the Strait of Gibraltar.
	Melilla
	Tashkent	Uzbekistan	Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan
Commune	Bangui	Central African Republic	Bangui is the capital and the largest city of the Central African Republic
Community	There are 17 autonomous communities of Spain
Nation	Northern Ireland  Scotland  Wales	United Kingdom	Three of the four constituent nations of the United Kingdom, namely Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, each have an elected devolved legislature which has the ability to legislate in devolved matters. The Parliament of the United Kingdom retains sovereignty (the United Kingdom is a unitary state) and legislates in matters that are not devolved, as well as having the capacity to legislate in areas that are devolved (this does not normally occur, by constitutional convention, without the agreement of the devolved legislature).
County	There are 117 autonomous counties of the People's Republic of China
District Council	There are 25 autonomous district councils of India
Island	Tobago	Trinidad and Tobago	The Tobago House of Assembly is an autonomous legislature that is responsible for the island of Tobago.[1]
Okrug	There are 6 autonomous okrugs of Russia
Oblast	Jewish Autonomous Oblast	Russia
Prefecture	There are 30 autonomous prefectures of the People's Republic of China
Province	Aceh	Indonesia
	Jeju	South Korea
	Kosovo and Metohija	Claimed by:  Serbia	In 2008, the Republic of Kosovo declared independence. While Serbia has not formally recognized Kosovo's independence and still has an administrative apparatus for the Autonomous Province, its independence is recognized by 113 UN member states.
		Controlled by:  Kosovo
	Papua	Indonesia
	South Tyrol	Italy
	Trentino
	Vojvodina	Serbia
	West Papua	Indonesia
	Yogyakarta
	Malampa Penama Sanma Shefa Tafea Torba	Vanuatu	The provinces of Vanuatu are autonomous units with their own popularly elected local parliaments.
Region	Åland Islands	Finland
	Aosta Valley	Italy
	Azores	Portugal
	Bougainville	Papua New Guinea
	Friuli-Venezia Giulia	Italy
	Guangxi	People's Republic of China
	Hong Kong  Macau	People's Republic of China
	Hopi Reservation	United States
	Cherokee Nation	United States
	Oglala Lakota of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation	United States
	Inner Mongolia	People's Republic of China
	Iraqi Kurdistan	Iraq	Iraqi Kurdistan is the only region that has gained official recognition internationally as an autonomous regional entity.
	Madeira	Portugal
	Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao	Philippines
	Mount Athos	Greece
	Navajo Nation	United States
	Ningxia	People's Republic of China
	Nisga'a Nation	Canada
	Nunatsiavut
	RAAN	Nicaragua
	RAAS
	Rodrigues	Mauritius
	Rojava	Syria
	Sardinia	Italy
	Sicily
	Tibet	People's Republic of China
	Tłı̨chǫ	Canada
	Xinjiang	People's Republic of China
	Zanzibar	Tanzania
There are 26 autonomous regions of India, one of which is a de facto autonomous area
Republic	Nakhchivan	Azerbaijan
	Adjara	Georgia
	Abkhazia	Claimed by:  Georgia	In 1999, the Republic of Abkhazia declared its independence from Georgia after the 1992–1993 war. Georgia and most of the U.N. member states have not recognized Abkhazia's independence and still has an administrative apparatus for the Autonomous Republic; its independence is recognized by Russia and three other U.N. member states.
		Controlled by:  Abkhazia
	Gorno-Badakhshan	Tajikistan
	Crimea	Claimed by:  Ukraine
		Controlled by:  Russia
	Karakalpakstan	Uzbekistan
Sector	Bissau	Guinea-Bissau
Territorial Unit	Gagauzia	Moldova
	Transnistria	Claimed by:  Moldova	In 1990, the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic declared its independence from the Soviet Union. While Moldova has not formally recognized Transnistria's independence and still has an administrative apparatus for the Autonomous Province, its independence is recognized by 3 other non-UN member states.
		Controlled by:  Transnistria
Entity	Republika Srpska  Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina	Bosnia and Herzegovina
Country	Faroe Islands  Greenland	Denmark	The two countries of the Danish realm, the Faroe Islands and Greenland, each have an elected devolved legislature which has the ability to legislate in devolved matters. The Parliament of Denmark retains sovereignty (Denmark is an unitary state) and legislates in matters that are not devolved, as well as having the capacity to legislate in areas that are devolved (this does not normally occur without the agreement of the devolved legislature).

List of other entities considered autonomous

Overseas territories

British Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies

Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man are self-governing Crown dependencies which are not part of the United Kingdom; however, the UK is responsible for their defence and international affairs. Gibraltar is a self-governing overseas territory of the UK. Most of the other 13 British Overseas Territories also have autonomy in internal affairs through local legislatures.

New Zealand dependent territories

New Zealand maintains nominal sovereignty over three Pacific Island nations. The Cook Islands and Niue are self-governing countries in free association with New Zealand that maintain some international relationships in their own name. Tokelau remains an autonomous dependency of New Zealand. The Chatham Islands—despite having the designation of Territory—is an integral part of the country, situated within the New Zealand archipelago. The territory's council is not autonomous and has broadly the same powers as other local councils, although notably it can also charge levies on goods entering or leaving the islands.^[2]

Dutch constituent countries

Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten are autonomous countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, each with their own parliament. In addition they enjoy autonomy in taxation matters as well as having their own currencies.

French overseas collectivities, New Caledonia, and Corsica

The French constitution recognises three autonomous jurisdictions. Corsica, a region of France, enjoys a greater degree of autonomy on matters such as tax and education compared to mainland regions. New Caledonia, a sui generis collectivity, and French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity, are highly autonomous territories with their own government, legislature, currency and constitution. They do not, however, have legislative powers for policy areas relating to law and order, defense, border control or university education. Other smaller overseas collectivities have a lesser degree of autonomy through local legislatures. The five overseas regions, French Guiana, Guadaloupe, Martinique, Mayotte and Réunion, are generally governed the same as mainland regions; however, they enjoy some additional powers, including certain legislative powers for devolved areas.

Ethiopian special woredas

In Ethiopia, "special woredas" are a subgroup of woredas (districts) that are organized around the traditional homelands of an ethnic minority, and are outside the usual hierarchy of a kilil, or region. These woredas have many similarities to autonomous areas in other countries.

Areas designated for indigenous peoples

Other areas that are autonomous in nature but not in name are areas designated for indigenous peoples, such as those of the Americas:

• Aboriginal (First Nation or Native American or Indian) Indian reserve and Indian reservation, in, respectively, Canada and the United States.^[discuss]


• the five comarcas indígenas ("indigenous regions") of Panama.

List of historical autonomous administrative divisions

• Autonomous Silesian Voivodeship


• 
  Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus in Albania (1914).


• 
  Autonomous republics of the Soviet Union (1922–1990)


• 
  Subcarpathian Ruthenia and Slovakia within Czechoslovakia (1938–1939).


• 
  Grand Duchy of Finland of the Russian Empire.


• 
  Magyar Autonomous Region of Socialist Republic of Romania (1952–1968)


• 
  Southern Ireland (1921–22) and Northern Ireland (1921–72) within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

See also

• 
  List of autonomous areas by country
  
  • Autonomous administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China
  
  
  • Autonomous administrative divisions of India
  
  
  • Autonomous administrative divisions of Russia
  
  
  • Autonomous administrative divisions of Spain
  
  


• Administrative division


• Region (administrative)


• Devolution


• Personal union


• List of autonomous regions leaders

References

Works cited

• M. Weller and S. Wolff (eds), Autonomy, Self-governance and Conflict Resolution: Innovative Approaches to Institutional Design in Divided Societies. Abingdon, Routledge, 2005


• 
  From Conflict to Autonomy in Nicaragua: Lessons Learnt^{[permanent dead link]}, report by Minority Rights Group International


• P.M. Olausson, Autonomy and Islands, A Global Study of the Factors that determine Island Autonomy. Åbo: Åbo Akademi University Press, 2007.


• Thomas Benedikter (ed.), Solving Ethnic Conflict through Self-Government - A Short Guide to Autonomy in Europe and South Asia, EURAC Bozen 2009, http://www.eurac.edu/en/research/institutes/imr/Documents/Deliverable_No_9_Update_Set_educational_material.pdf
  


• Thomas Benedikter, The World's Modern Autonomy Systems, EURAC Bozen 2010; http://www.gfbv.at/publikationen/weitere_publikationen.php^{[permanent dead link]}