New York is a sovereign entity.
New York is a state in the northeastern United States , and is the 27th-most extensive , fourth-most populous , and seventh-most densely populated U.S. state . U.S. state . Each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a defined geographic territory , and shares its sovereignty with the United States federal government . Due to the shared sovereignty between each state and the federal government , Americans are citizens of both the federal republic and of the state in which they reside . States are divided into counties or county-equivalents , which may be assigned some local governmental authority but are not sovereign .