The public records are the institution which preserves the Archives central bodies of the State in the majority of the States of the world. Other countries preferred the expression “Files general” (“of the Kingdom” in Belgium, “of the State” in Greece, “of the nation” in much of country of Latin America) or adopted a denomination referring to the federal structure of the State ( Bundesarchiv in Germany, Swiss federal Archives). Rare are thus the countries which, like the Italy, adopted the denomination without ambiguity of “central Files of the State”.

Certain countries not having the statute of Sovereign state, but asserting a personality and a history distinct from those of the State to which they belong gave the denomination of “Public records” to the files of their bodies of government. It is the case of the Catalogne, the Scotland and the Quebec.

List central files of State