{"id":653,"date":"2017-10-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp3.geodatasource.com\/tutorials\/what-is-administrative-division\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T07:00:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T07:00:19","password":"","slug":"what-is-administrative-division","status":"publish","type":"docs","link":"https:\/\/www.geodatasource.com\/resources\/tutorials\/what-is-administrative-division\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Administrative Division?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Administrative division is a part of a country or a defined region. The main objective of the administrative division is for administration purposes. The administrative divisions have been divided into a certain order. In general, the largest administrative subdivision of a country is named as First-Order Administrative Division followed by the smaller administrative subdivision of a country which is named as Second-Order Administrative Division. The number of orders of administrative divisions may be further divided into Third-Order and the smaller Fourth-Order Administrative Division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What are the differences between First-Order Administrative Division and Second-Order Administrative Division? A country may be divided into several parts like regions or states or provinces, then further divided into municipalities or counties. The highest administrative division is called \u201cFirst-Order\u201d or \u201cFirst-Level\u201d Administrative Division, whereas the subdivision is called \u201cSecond-Order\u201d or \u201cSecond-Level\u201d Administrative Division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In <strong>GeoDataSource<\/strong>, there are only two levels of administrative divisions supported, which are the First-Order Administrative Division and the Second-Order Administrative Division. The First-Order Administrative Divisions are the regions or states of a country. Thus, the \u201cFirst-Order Administrative Division\u2019s Full Name\u201d is the full name of a complete region name that used to identify the First-Order Administrative Division. The name of the First-Order Administrative Division of <strong>GeoDataSource<\/strong> is in compliance with the International Standards Organization ISO3166-2 standard with several exceptions that are listed below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>49 countries do not have the official ISO3166-2 subdivisions defined.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1 exception for Bahamas &#8211; New Providence region, which does not have ISO3166-2 associated.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1 exception for Singapore &#8211; we categorize Singapore as a single subdivision.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody><tr><td>Anguilla<\/td><td>Antarctica<\/td><td>American Samoa<\/td><td>Aruba<\/td><td>Aland Islands<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Saint Barthelemy<\/td><td>Bermuda<\/td><td>Bahamas<\/td><td>Bouvet Island<\/td><td>Cocos (Keeling) Islands<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Cook Islands<\/td><td>Curacao<\/td><td>Christmas Island<\/td><td>Western Sahara<\/td><td>Falkland Islands (Malvinas)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Faroe Islands<\/td><td>French Guiana<\/td><td>Guernsey<\/td><td>Gibraltar<\/td><td>Guadeloupe<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Heard Island and Mcdonald Islands<\/td><td>South Georgia and The South Sandwich Islands<\/td><td>Guam<\/td><td>Hong Kong<\/td><td>Isle of Man<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>British Indian Ocean Territory<\/td><td>Jersey<\/td><td>Cayman Islands<\/td><td>Saint Martin (French Part)<\/td><td>Macao<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Northern Mariana Islands<\/td><td>Martinique<\/td><td>Montserrat<\/td><td>New Caledonia<\/td><td>Norfolk Island<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Niue<\/td><td>French Polynesia<\/td><td>Saint Pierre and Miquelon<\/td><td>Pitcairn<\/td><td>Puerto Rico<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Reunion<\/td><td>Singapore<\/td><td>Svalbard and Jan Mayen<\/td><td>Sint Maarten (Dutch Part)<\/td><td>Turks and Caicos Islands<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>French Southern Territories<\/td><td>Tokelau<\/td><td>Holy See<\/td><td>Virgin Islands, British<\/td><td>Virgin Islands, U.S.,<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Mayotte<\/td><td>&nbsp;<\/td><td>&nbsp;<\/td><td>&nbsp;<\/td><td>&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>For the Second-Order Administrative Division, this is only applicable to the United States (US). For instance, Hill County, Pender County etc. are some examples of Second-Order Administrative Division\u2019s full name that are supported in <strong>GeoDataSource<\/strong> for the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Administrative division is a part of a country or a defined region. The main objective of the administrative division is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"doc_category":[20],"doc_tag":[],"class_list":["post-653","docs","type-docs","status-publish","hentry","doc_category-general-topics"],"year_month":"2026-05","word_count":366,"total_views":0,"reactions":{"happy":0,"normal":0,"sad":0},"author_info":{"name":"hexasoft","author_nicename":"hexasoft","author_url":"https:\/\/www.geodatasource.com\/resources\/author\/hexasoft\/"},"doc_category_info":[{"term_name":"General Topics","term_url":"https:\/\/www.geodatasource.com\/resources\/categories\/general-topics\/"}],"doc_tag_info":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What is Administrative Division? |<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Administrative division - a part of a country or a defined region. 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