A state of the United States of America is one of the 50 constituent political e

ntities that shares its sovereignty with the United States federal government. B
ecause of the shared sovereignty between each U.S. state and the U.S. federal go
vernment, an American is a citizen of both the federal republic and of his or he
r state of domicile.[3] State citizenship and residency are flexible and no gove
rnment approval is required to move between states, except for persons covered b
y certain types of court orders (e.g., paroled convicts and children of divorced
spouses who are sharing custody).
States are divided into counties or county-equivalents, which may be assigned so
me local governmental authority but are not sovereign. County or county-equivale
nt structure varies widely by state. Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and
Virginia use the official title of Commonwealth rather than State.
State governments are allocated power by the people (of each respective state) t
hrough their individual constitutions. By ratifying the United States Constituti
on, the states transferred certain limited sovereign powers to the federal gover
nment. Historically, the tasks of law enforcement, public education, public heal
th, transportation, and infrastructure have generally been considered primarily
state responsibilities, although all of these now have significant federal fundi
ng and regulation as well.