A canton is a type of

administrative division Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...

of a country. In general, cantons are relatively small in terms of area and population when compared with other administrative divisions such as

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

, departments, or

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

s. Internationally, the most politically important cantons are the

Swiss cantons The 26 cantons of Switzerland (german: Kanton; french: canton ; it, cantone; Sursilvan and Surmiran: ; Vallader and Puter: ; Sutsilvan: ; Rumantsch Grischun: ) are the member states of the Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss C ...

. As the constituents of the

Swiss Confederation ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, theoretically and historically, they are semi-sovereign states. The term is derived from the French word '' canton'', meaning "corner" or "district" (from which " cantonment" is also derived).

In specific countries

Cantons exist or previously existed in the following countries: *

Cantons of Belgium In Belgium, there are judicial and electoral cantons. Judicial cantons A judicial canton ( nl, gerechtelijk kanton, links=no, french: canton judiciaire, links=no, german: gerichtlicher Kanton, links=no) is a group of municipalities over which a si ...

* Cantonal Government of Bohol * Cantons of Bolivia *

Cantons of Bosnia and Herzegovina The ten Canton (country subdivision), cantons of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, political entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, are its federal units with a high level of autonomy. The c ...

: federal units of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina *Canada: Canadian French equivalent for the English word "

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

", since the translation ''municipalité'' is already used for a different level of government (see

). ** Cantons of Quebec *

Cantons of Costa Rica Costa Rica is administratively divided into seven provinces which are subdivided into 83 cantons, and these are further subdivided into districts. Cantons are the only administrative division in Costa Rica that possess local government in the f ...

: national second order subdivision of the first order

Provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

. Cantons are further subdivided into the third order Districts. Each canton has its own

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

, or local government. * Cantons of Ecuador: subdivisions below the

provinces of Ecuador Ecuador is divided into 24 provinces ( es, provincias, singular''provincia''). The provinces of Ecuador and their capitals are: List 1 Population as per the census carried out on 2010-11-28 In addition, there were four areas that were non-del ...

. * Cantons of El Salvador: divisions of a

outside the more urban ''caserios'', which border the town or city. ''Cantones'' can be thought as the more rural parts of a city or town, generally far from the actual urban population. *

Cantons of France The cantons of France are territorial subdivisions of the French Republic's departments and arrondissements. Apart from their role as organizational units in relation to certain aspects of the administration of public services and justice, ...

: a subdivision of '' arrondissements'' and ''

départements A department (, ) is an administrative or political division in several countries. Departments are the first-level divisions of 11 countries, nine in the Americas and two in Africa. An additional 10 countries use departments as second-level div ...

'', grouping several ''

communes An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, relig ...

.'' * Cantons of Lebanon: unofficial

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

s and factions during the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...

and afterwards. Most areas have been returned to Lebanese government control. *

Cantons of Luxembourg The 12 cantons ( lb, Kantonen or ; french: cantons ; german: Kantone ) of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg are areas of local government at the first level of local administrative unit (LAU-1) in the European Union's Nomenclature of Territorial Un ...

: first order administrative subdivisions * Cantonal Government of Negros: short-lived provisional government in the Visayas during the Filipino-American Wars in the 19th–20th centuries

Republic of Negros The Republic of Negros ( hil, Republika sang Negros; ceb, Republika sa Negros; es, República de Negros) was a short-lived revolutionary entity which had existed on the island of Negros first as a canton of the First Philippine Republic and l ...

. * Cantons of Rojava (Western Kurdistan, Syria) *

Cantons of Switzerland The 26 cantons of Switzerland (german: Kanton; french: canton ; it, cantone; Sursilvan and Surmiran: ; Vallader and Puter: ; Sutsilvan: ; Rumantsch Grischun: ) are the member states of the Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss Co ...

: each a semi-sovereign

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

within Switzerland. *

Cantons of Togo The Cantons of Togo are the third-level administrative units of the country, after regions and prefectures; which in turn they are subdivided into villages. They are similar to communes or sub-districts or sub-prefectures of other French African ...

: Subdivisions of Togo's prefectures, and further divided into villages. *subdivisions of

vingtaine A vingtaine (literally "group of twenty" in French) is a political subdivision of Jersey. They are subdivisions of the various parishes of Jersey, and one, La Vingtaine de la Ville (The Vingtaine of the town), in Saint Helier is further divided ...

s in

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label= Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west France. It is the l ...

*subdivisions of the

parishes of Guernsey The Bailiwick of Guernsey includes the island of Guernsey and other islands such as Alderney, Sark, Herm, Jethou, Brecqhou, and Lihou. Each parish was established, probably in the 11th century, as a religious area, each having its parish church. ...

In former countries

* Cantons of Prussia: military enrollment districts between 1733 and 1813 * Cantons of

Eastern Rumelia Eastern Rumelia ( bg, Източна Румелия, Iztochna Rumeliya; ota, , Rumeli-i Şarkî; el, Ανατολική Ρωμυλία, Anatoliki Romylia) was an autonomous province (''oblast'' in Bulgarian, '' vilayet'' in Turkish) in the Ott ...

, the subdivisions below the departments. *

Cantons of the Soviet Union Cantons were administrative units in several autonomous republics and regions of Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and then the Soviet Union, in 1920–1941. Cantons existed in Bashkir ASSR (1922–1930), Dagestan ASSR The D ...

, subdivisions of several autonomous regions of the

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while ...

before 1941. *In the

Republic of New Granada The Republic of New Granada was a 1831–1858 centralist unitary republic consisting primarily of present-day Colombia and Panama with smaller portions of today's Costa Rica, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru and Brazil. On 9 May 1834, the national flag wa ...

, cantons were subdivisions below the

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

. *In 1873, " Cantonalists" took over the city of Cartagena, Spain, a haven for the Spanish Navy, and declared the city independent (see

Cantonal Revolution The Cantonal rebellion was a cantonalist insurrection that took place during the First Spanish Republic between July 1873 and January 1874. Its protagonists were the "intransigent" federal Republicans, who wanted to establish immediately the F ...

References

{{Types of administrative country subdivision Types of administrative division *