Districts
Latvia is divided into 26 districts (rajoni), as follows:
- Aizkraukle District
- Aluksne District
- Balvi District
- Bauska District
- Cesis District
- Daugavpils District
- Dobele District
- Gulbene District
- Jekabpils District
- Jelgava District
- Kraslava District
- Kuldiga District
- Liepaja District
- Limbazi District
- Ludza District
- Madona District
- Ogre District
- Preili District
- Rezekne District
- Riga District
- Saldus District
- Talsi District
- Tukums District
- Valka District
- Valmiera District
- Ventspils District
The districts of Latvia are divided into 77 cities (pilsetas; singular - pilseta), 10 amalgamated municipalities (novads), 24 rural territories (lauku teritorija) and 475 rural municipalities (pagasts).
There are also seven cities (lielpilsetas) that have a separate status:
- Ventspils
- Daugavpils
- Jelgava
- Jurmala
- Liepaja
- Rezekne
- Riga
Regions
Latvia is divided into several historical and cultural regions.
The Latvian constitution recognises four distinct regions:
- Kurzeme (Courland), the western part of Latvia, consisting roughly the counties of Liepaja, Kuldiga, Talsi, Saldus and Ventspils.
- Zemgale (Semigallia) is the central part of Latvia. Zemgale is bounded by Kurzeme in the east, Gulf of Riga and Daugava river in the north and Latvia-Lithuania border in the south. It consists approximately of the counties of Bauska, Dobele, Jelgava and Tukums and parts of Aizkraukle, Daugavpils, Jekabpils, Ogre and Riga counties which are south of Daugava river. Traditional Semigallia also includes the northern part of ?iauliai County in Lithuania.
- Vidzeme, meaning "Middle land", is also known as Livland, though it comprises only a small part of traditional Livland. Present Vidzeme is the Latvian part of Swedish Livonia and Riga. It roughly corresponds to Aluksne, Cesis, Gulbene, Limbazi, Madona, Valka, Valmiera counties and parts of Aizkraukle, Ogre and Riga counties north of Daugava river.
- Latgale (Latgallia), the part of Livonia still in hands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth after the Treaty of Altmark in 1629, so called Inflanty. It roughly corresponds to Balvi, Kraslava, Ludza, Preili, Rezekne counties and parts of Daugavpils and Jekabpils counties north of Daugava river.
A fifth region is Selija (Selonia, Aug?zeme), often considered a part of Semigallia. Selonia comprises the eastern part of the 1939 province of Semigallia, roughly corresponding to parts Aizkraukle, Daugavpils and Jekabpils counties south of Daugava river. Traditional Selonia also includes a portion of north east Lithuania. It is named after the Selonians.
In some cases, Kurzeme and Zemgale are combined into one region. This reflects the political division of Latvia between 1629 and 1917, when Kurzeme and Zemgale were together, first as the Duchy of Courland, then as the Courland Governorate in the Russian Empire while Vidzeme and Latgale were politically separate, both from Courland and one from another. From this perspective, there are three regions: Kurzeme (including Zemgale and Selija), Vidzeme and Latgale. This division of Latvia into three regions is no longer commonly used but it can be seen in the Coat of Arms of Latvia and the Monument of Freedom in Riga, both of which contain three stars: for Kurzeme, Vidzeme and Latgale, which were united into Latvia in 1918.