sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

and

international law International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of Rule of law, rules, norms, Customary law, legal customs and standards that State (polity), states and other actors feel an obligation to, and generall ...

three categories of political status are usually recognized:
The Concise Encyclopedia of Sociology
', 122 (Wiley, 2010, George Ritzer and J. Michael Ryan eds.). #Independent nations e.g.:

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

#Autonomous states which are under the protection of another country in matters of defense and foreign affairs, e.g.:

Netherlands Antilles The Netherlands Antilles (, ; ), also known as the Dutch Antilles, was a constituent Caribbean country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands consisting of the islands of Saba (island), Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten in the Lesser Antilles, ...

, the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...

British Virgin Islands The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and north-west ...

etc. #

Colonies A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their '' metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often or ...

and other dependent political units e.g.

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

. There are, furthermore, several unrecognized countries and independence, secessionist, autonomy and nationalist movements throughout the world. See list of unrecognized countries.

Political status in Northern Ireland

Political Status was an alternative name for Special Category Status.

Political status around the world

* Constitutional status of Cornwall * Constitutional status of Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles * Disputed status of Gibraltar * Disputed status of the isthmus between Gibraltar and Spain * Disputed territories of Northern Iraq * Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute * International recognition of Bangladesh * International recognition of Israel * Legal status of Alaska * Legal status of Germany * Legal status of Hawaii * Legal status of the State of Palestine * Legal status of Texas *

Legal status of the Holy See The legal status of the Holy See, the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, both in state practice and according to the writing of modern legal scholars, is that of a full subject of public international law, with rights an ...

* Political status of Abkhazia and South Ossetia *

Political status of Crimea The Crimean problem (; ) or the Crimean question (; ) is a dispute over the status of Crimea between Ukraine and Russia. The dispute began during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but did not escalate into a conflict until the 2014 Ukrain ...

* Political status of Kosovo *

Political status of Nagorno-Karabakh The political status of Nagorno-Karabakh remained unresolved from its declaration of independence on 10 December 1991 to its September 2023 collapse. During Soviet times, it had been an ethnic Armenian autonomous oblast of the Azerbaijan Sovie ...

* Political status of Kashmir *

Political status of Puerto Rico The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico () is an unincorporated territory of the United States. As such, the archipelago and island of Puerto Rico is neither a sovereign nation nor a U.S. state. The U.S. Constitution does not apply directly or un ...

Political status of Taiwan The island of Taiwan is the subject of a geopolitical dispute between the Republic of China (ROC), which controls it, and the People's Republic of China (PRC), which claims it as part of its territory. The Republic of China (ROC) was establ ...

* Political status of the Azores * Political status of the Cook Islands and Niue * Political status of Transnistria *

Political status of Western Sahara Western Sahara, formerly the colony of Spanish Sahara, is a disputed territory claimed by both the Kingdom of Morocco and the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario Front), which is an independence m ...

* Proposed Darfurian referendum *

Secessionism in Western Australia Secessionism has been a recurring feature of Western Australia's political landscape since shortly after Federation in 1901. The idea of self-governance or secession has often been discussed through local newspaper articles and editorials. On a ...

Status of Jerusalem The status of Jerusalem has been described as "one of the most intractable issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict" due to the long-running territorial dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, both of which claim it as their capital ...

* Status of territories captured by Israel * Status of the Golan Heights

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Political Status International law International relations Diplomatic recognition Proposed administrative territorial entities