Autonomous regions
Regions with their own parliament, laws or language inside a bigger country.
- AcehAfter the 2004 tsunami came peace, and Aceh alone in Indonesia can apply Islamic law.
- ÅlandSwedish-speaking islands left in Finland by the League of Nations, demilitarized since 1856.
- Aosta ValleyItaly’s smallest region, where French has stood equal to Italian in law since 1948.
- Azores and MadeiraUninhabited when Portuguese sailors arrived, both island groups elected their own parliaments in 1976.
- BangsamoroSet up in 2019 to end decades of war, it elected its first parliament in September 2026.
- Basque CountryA Spanish region that collects its own taxes and pays Madrid for what Madrid provides.
- BougainvilleIt voted 97.7% for independence in 2019. Papua New Guinea still has to decide.
- Canary IslandsTwo rival capitals take turns hosting the president, 100 km off Africa and 1,000 km from mainland Spain.
- CataloniaIts parliament declared independence in 2017, and Spain ran its government for seven months.
- ChechnyaIt declared independence in 1991 and fought two wars with Moscow. Now a pro-Moscow leader runs it.
- CorsicaGenoa sold it to France in 1768. In 2026 France’s lower house voted to make it autonomous.
- Faroe IslandsVoted for independence in 1946, got home rule instead, and stayed out of the EU when Denmark joined.
- GagauziaA Turkic-speaking Christian region with the right to leave Moldova if Moldova stops being independent.
- GreenlandColonised in 1721, part of Denmark since 1953, self-governing since 2009, and with a legal way out.
- KarakalpakstanMore than a third of Uzbekistan, and the only part with a constitutional right to leave.
- Kurdistan RegionThe only place Kurds run their own government, with a parliament, president and armed forces.
- Mount AthosA monks’ republic inside Greece and the EU where women have been banned for about a thousand years.
- NakhchivanA piece of Azerbaijan cut off from the rest by a strip of Armenia.
- NevisIts constitution lets it leave the country. In 1998, 61.7% voted to go; it needed two-thirds.
- Nicaragua’s Caribbean CoastNicaragua’s Mosquito Coast was under British protection, then won autonomy in 1987 after a war in the 1980s.
- Northern IrelandIts government only works if both unionists and nationalists sit in it, and several times it hasn’t.
- NunavutCanada’s newest territory: a fifth of the country, about 37,000 people, and no political parties.
- Puerto RicoUS citizens since 1917, but they can’t vote for president while they live on the island.
- PuntlandFounded in 1998 to stay inside Somalia, it has refused to recognise Somalia’s federal government since 2024.
- ScotlandA colony in Panama went bust, and eight years later Scotland’s parliament voted itself out of existence.
- South TyrolA German-speaking corner of Italy that keeps about 90% of the state taxes raised there.
- TatarstanIt called itself a sovereign state in the 1990s, and gave up its last symbol, a president, in 2023.
- VojvodinaSerbia’s northern plain, where six languages are in official use.
- WalesFrom 1746 to 1967, “England” in an Act of Parliament legally included Wales.
- Why the Northern Territory isn’t a stateIts parliament legalised assisted dying in 1995. Canberra’s parliament overruled it two years later.
- ZanzibarOnce the capital of Oman’s sultans, and still with its own president inside Tanzania.
Regions with a say of their own
An autonomous region runs some of its own affairs inside a bigger country: its own parliament, laws, language rules or tax. Finland's Åland Islands are Swedish-speaking and demilitarised, Greenland governs itself within the Kingdom of Denmark, and Hong Kong and Macau have their own legal systems within China.
Autonomy is usually the result of a deal, after a war, a treaty or a referendum, and its limits can change. The articles here explain what each region controls, what it doesn't, and how it got there.