Departmento ? = State?

Question

If a birth certificate has

Departmento

Provincia

Localidad

Is that the same as:

State

County

town or city?

Thanks

Answer 1

The site has a truly outstanding dictionary which can help you with translating any words. For example, I looked up "departamento" and found the following definition "A province, district, or subdivision of a country." I leave the rest to you as I'm sure you want to try it out. Good Luck!!

Ciao!!

• yea, well I knew that. Doesn't help much. - RachelC Oct 11, 2010

Answer 2

keep in mind in some places departamento is a subdivision of a provincia

• This is for Bolivia - RachelC Oct 11, 2010

Answer 3

Yes, that is the rough order of size (departamentos are biggest, then provincias, then localidades) but it really isn't quite accurate to apply the divisions of the US to those of Bolivia. A departamento functions differently from a state, has different powers, etc. Departamento is best translated as 'department' and provincia is best translated as 'province'. They are much larger than counties in most places, though I suppose county size varies greatly. Many of the provincias are about 15,000 square miles.

So, long story short, no, it isn't "the same", but it's the rough idea in terms of scale. If I were translating a birth certificate, though, I would not use the American terms but the translated Bolivian ones.

Answer 4

It appears the Bolivia is divided in the following manner from largest to smallest:

Departamentos, Provincias, Municipios, y Cantónes