Understanding multilevel governance starts with understanding a country’s territorial structure—how its territory is divided into regions, provinces, districts, municipalities, and other subnational units. Administrative boundary datasets provide a standardized geographic picture of these territorial levels, including their boundaries, names, and number of units.
Importantly, however, not every territorial or administrative level represents a level of government. Connecting subnational boundary data with institutional information helps distinguish territorial divisions from meaningful regional and local governments and provides a common geographic foundation for comparing multilevel governance across countries.