definition
strict definition
parish
A civil division used in place of a county in Louisiana, and a local unit in several other countries.
In Louisiana a parish is what every other US state calls a county, and it is a unit of government with the same standing. The name is the historical remnant of the state's French and Spanish administration.
Elsewhere the word names something smaller. An English civil parish is the lowest tier of local government, well below a county, and parishes in the Caribbean and in Andorra sit at yet other levels.
Because the same word describes units at different heights, the tier has to be set from the country's own hierarchy and never inferred from this type.
A church parish is not a civil division and is not a region.