State

Infrastructure and market access on the state overview screen.

States are the main political-geographical unit of Victoria 3, where pops live and buildings are built. Most economic actions involve interacting with states. States are based upon state regions, predefined parts of the map which can be subdivided into multiple split states; however it is common for a state to be coterminous with its state region.

State region

See also: List of state regions

State regions are defined areas of the map made up of a number of tiles or "provinces". Each state is a state region or a part of a state region owned by a single country. States inherit all of their state region's traits.

Inheritable features

See also: State traits

States inherit certain features from their state regions, including:

• State Traits: These represent a wide variety of geographical features that have an impact on the economy, infrastructure, or population of the entire state region.
•  Claims: A state region can be claimed by a country that does not currently own it but are broadly considered to have a legitimate reason to.
•  Homelands: Every culture has one or more state regions that it considers to be its natural homeland. Cultural homelands impact migration, assimilation, and incorporation and are very important for nation formations and cultural secessions.

Split state

A  split state is a subdivision of a state region, where two or more countries each own a portion of the state region. Split states divide up limited resources, such as lumber, mining, and arable land, based on their share of provinces from the state region. The specific formula is as follows:

$Share={\dfrac {regular_{n}+(5\cdot prime_{n})}{regular_{t}+(5\cdot prime_{t})}}$

Additional explanation Specifically, the number of regular and "prime" provinces in the split state (sub n) divided by the number of regular and prime provinces in the state region (sub t); impassable provinces are not counted at all. Additionally, sea-based resources or buildings – fishing, whaling, ports and naval bases – are not available to a split state which does not contain at least one coastal province, but the fishing and whaling resources are still divided out to the split state, reducing their availability to other split states.

Split states can be created during gameplay in three ways: treaty ports, colonization, or certain effects – including revolutions, releasing certain countries, or events.

Split states naming conventions

Split states are typically named by their owner's adjective plus the state region name, e.g. Bavarian Rhineland; a split state which controls more than half of the state region is given the state region name, and a split state owned by a one-state country is typically given the country's name. If a country only owns a single hub province in a state, its portion of the state typically takes that province's name.

Resource limits

Each state region has a certain amount of  arable land and resources. This limits how many and which agriculture and resource industry (rural) buildings a state can support. As noted above, arable land and resources are divided among split states proportionally. In addition to resources present from the start of the game, certain resources ( gold, rubber, and oil) may be discovered during gameplay, unlocked by certain technologies. State regions always indicate if there are discoverable resources present, even before the unlocking technologies have been researched.

Strategic region

Each state region belongs to a strategic region, a larger geographic area that is the basis for interests and HQs. There are 53 strategic regions, each containing between 5 and 20 state regions with an average of around 11 state regions per strategic region.

State status

In addition to ownership, there are a number of conditions that apply to a state and affect the local population and economy.

Incorporation status

Incorporation time

Cultural Homeland	Time
Primary culture	2 years
Shared heritage trait	5 years
Shared other trait	10 years
No shared traits	20 years

Incorporation status represents a state's political status within the country that owns it. The different incorporation statuses are as follows:

•  Incorporated state: A state that is a fully integrated political unit in the country. This state incurs full bureaucracy costs, pays all forms of taxes required by the government, and gets the benefit of all national institutions.
•  Unincorporated state: A state that is owned but only very lightly administered by the country, such as frontier states. Unincorporated states do not incur any bureaucracy costs but only pay certain taxes (such as Consumption Taxes), get no benefits from national institutions and have reduced infrastructure.
•  Colony state: A state undergoing active colonization. This is the same as an unincorporated state except that, as long as colonization is ongoing, it cannot begin incorporation. In certain circumstances, it is possible for a country to colonize the same state region that contains one of its incorporated states (e.g.  Japan colonizing Hokkaido).

Unincorporated states can be incorporated by spending the total bureaucracy that is required to administer the state. The benefits of incorporation are phased in over the incorporation process, which takes between 2 to 20 years depending on cultural homelands present in the state. It is not possible to unincorporate a state, except by losing ownership of it to another country then recapturing it or having the state revolt. Additionally, a country automatically gains a claim if it loses an incorporated state due to a diplomatic play or war.

Unincorporated states have −25% infrastructure and −50% conscriptable battalions; pops in unincorporated states receive −15% starting wages and have −50% political strength and −33% expected standard of living. These effects remain in full until the state is completely incorporated.

Infrastructure and market access

Main article: Infrastructure

Infrastructure determines the market access of a state. Unless a state is isolated – not able to access the market capital at all – it's market access is primarily a percentage based on infrastructure and infrastructure usage. States which are not connected to the market capital by land – that is, overseas – also require convoys and shipping lanes for their market access; a lack of which can reduce the market access even with sufficient infrastructure. Infrastructure is gained mainly from  railways; however, there are other sources and several modifiers which increase or decrease infrastructure as well.

Market access reflects how connected the state is with the rest of the market. Low market access means the state's economy operates more "independently" and prices of goods in the state may differ greatly from the wider market. There are no "local markets", such that overseas states cannot support each other unless they can access the market capital.

Taxation capacity

Incorporated states require sufficient taxation capacity in order to effectively collect taxes from the pops living in the state. Taxation capacity primarily comes from  government administration buildings. If taxation capacity is insufficient for the population of the state, pops in that state are only taxed a percentage of the full tax rate set for the country and keep the remainder. This is in contrast with tax waste which taxes the full amount then discards the waste proportion.

Capital state

Each country has a  capital state, where the seat of government is. The capital state has +25% taxation capacity and gives +25% political strength to pops living there. Occupying an enemy country's capital state is one way to force their capitulation during war, and certain war goals require occupying the capital state.

While not at war or involved in a diplomatic play, the capital state can be changed to any other incorporated state once every 5 years. Moving the capital adds a decaying −10% penalty to bureaucracy, authority, and influence.

Market capital

Each market owner has a  market capital, which is used for determining market access and isolated states. The market capital adds +25% infrastructure to its state. While not at war or involved in a diplomatic play, the market capital can be changed to any other incorporated state once every 5 years. Moving the market capital adds a decaying −10% penalty to throughput for all buildings.

Turmoil

Turmoil amount	Tax Waste	Migration Attraction	Construction efficiency
Moderate (25%)	+25%	−50%	−50%
High (50%)	+50%	−75%	−75%
Extreme (75%)	+100%	−100%	−100%

A state where a large percentage of the population are  radical experiences turmoil in increasing severity. A state with turmoil suffers penalties in the form of increased tax waste and reduced construction efficiency and migration attraction. Turmoil applies by thresholds, with each level requiring that percentage or more of the state's population to be radical.

These penalties can be reduced by investing into the Law Enforcement institution or by enacting the  Violent Suppression decree.

Each level of law enforcement decreases the effects of turmoil by 15% (20% with  Local Police) in incorporated states. This effect scales up with the progression of incorporation when incorporating a state. Violent suppression decreases the effects by 50%, but also increases the mortality of the state by 2% per point of turmoil.

Devastation

States that are occupied during war or damaged by events gain  devastation. Each point of devastation adds −1% infrastructure and construction efficiency, −2% migration attraction, and +2% pop mortality.

Devastation disappears naturally over time by −0.1 devastation per day (−36.5 per year). There is no way to change the rate of removing devastation, neither for good or bad.

Event modifiers

Events and journal entries can apply various modifiers to a state, providing various bonuses or maluses either temporarily or permanently.

Decrees

Main article: Decrees

Decrees are effects that can be applied to individual states to improve them in many ways. Decrees cost a base of 100 authority each to be applied. The character traits  Ambitious,  Imperious, and  Cruel each reduce the cost of decrees by −25% when the character is the country's  ruler. Certain events can also reduce the cost. Multiple decrees can be used simultaneously on the same state, with the exception of the three decrees encouraging certain industries which are mutually exclusive. Nearly all decrees require a certain technology to have been researched in order to be used. Decrees can be applied either by right-clicking on a province or through the political lens.