Describe the four defining characteristics of a state.

population, territory, sovereignty, and government.

Explanation:

In biology, a population is a number of all the organisms of the same group or species who live in a particular geographical area and are capable of interbreeding

a part of the globe that is under the sovereignty of a particular state. Within its territory a state has territorial supremacy (that is, the highest and exclusive authority), which constitutes an organic part of state sovereignty.

State sovereignty is the concept that states are in complete and exclusive control of all the people and property within their territory. ... Practically, sovereignty means that one state cannot demand that another state take any particular internal action.

All State governments are modeled after the Federal Government and consist of three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. The U.S. Constitution mandates that all States uphold a “republican form” of government, although the three-branch structure is not required.