Parish (country subdivision)

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The Parish Hall of St. Clement, seat of Jersey's municipal administration.

A parish as a country subdivision or administrative subdivision exists in several countries' political systems. In England and in Louisiana it is sometimes called "civil parish" to distinguish it from the religious parish.

[edit] Countries with parishes as subnational entity

Andorra (parròquies)
Antigua and Barbuda, West Indies;
- see Parishes and dependencies of Antigua and Barbuda
Australia
- see Cadastral divisions of Australia There are more than 15,000 parishes altogether in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania; but only as geographical subdivisions used almost exclusively in legal documents relating to land transactions. They no longer have any connection to Local Government bodies or boundaries.
Barbados, West Indies
- see Parishes of Barbados
Bermuda (UK)
Canada
- see List of parishes in New Brunswick
- see Parish municipality (Quebec)
Dominica, West Indies
- see Parishes of Dominica
Grenada, West Indies
- see Parishes of Grenada
Guernsey (Crown dependency), Channel Islands
Jamaica, West Indies;
- see Parishes of Jamaica
Jersey (Crown dependency), Channel Islands
- see Parishes of Jersey
Macao (PRC) (freguesias);
- see List of cities and parishes in Macao
Montserrat (UK), West Indies
- see Parishes of Montserrat
Portugal (freguesias);
- see List of parishes of Portugal
Saint Kitts and Nevis, West Indies
- see Parishes of Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, West Indies
- see Parishes of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Spain
- see Galicia (parroquias or freguesías)
- Asturias (parroquias)
Sweden
- see Parishes of Sweden
United Kingdom;
- see Civil parish (England), Local government in England, List of civil parishes in England
- Wales
United States
- A parish in Louisiana is the equivalent of a county in other states.

In these areas, it originated as a religious subdivision, but over time has come to be either a purely civil one, or (in some jurisdictions in which the church is not separate from the state) one that is simultaneously ecclesiastical and civil.

[edit] Scotland, Wales and Ireland

In Wales the equivalent body to a Parish council is termed a Community council.

The counties of Scotland were sub-divided into parishes, but the councils of these were abolished in 1930. Scotland has now bodies called Community councils, but these are not equivalent to and have fewer powers than the English parishes and Welsh communities.

In Ireland, counties are divided into civil parishes. Irish civil parishes are divided into approximately 60,000 townlands. Counties are also divided into larger subdivisions called baronies, which are made up of a number of parishes or parts of parishes. Both civil parishes and baronies are now largely obsolete (except for some purposes such as legal transactions involving land) and are no longer used for local government purposes. From the 17th to mid-19th centuries civil parishes were based on early Christian and medieval monastic and church settlements. As the population grew, new parishes were created and the civil parish covered the same area as the established Church of Ireland. The Roman Catholic Church adapted to a new structure based on towns and villages. There 2,508 civil parishes in Ireland, which frequently break both barony and county boundaries.

[edit] State of Louisiana, United States

In Louisiana, a civil parish is a geographical unit of administration. In this case the Parish is equivalent to the counties found throughout the rest of the country. This is due to its history as a Spanish and French colony. Louisiana and Alaska - which uses the term borough - are the only two states to refer to county level geographical units as something other than county.

The lowlands of South Carolina were also previously divided into parishes, rather than counties, well into the nineteenth century.

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