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Counties of Norway

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There are 15 counties in Norway. The 15 counties are administrative regions that are the first-level administrative divisions of Norway. The counties are further subdivided into 357 municipalities (Template:Langx). The island territories of Svalbard and Jan Mayen are outside the county divisions and they are ruled directly from the national level. The capital city of Oslo is both a county and a municipality.

In 2017, the Solberg government decided to abolish some of the counties and to merge them with other counties to form larger ones, reducing the number of counties from 19 to 11, which was implemented on 1 January 2020.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This sparked popular opposition, with some calling for the reform to be reversed. The Storting voted to partly undo the reform on 14 June 2022, with Norway to have 15 counties from 1 January 2024.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Three of the newly merged counties, namely Vestfold og Telemark, Viken<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Roede">Lars Roede, "Viken og Innlandet: Amatørmessige logoer og uhistoriske navn", Aftenposten, 11 January 2020</ref> and Troms og Finnmark,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> were dissolved and the old counties existing before the reform re-established with a few minor changes as some municipalities merged across former county borders and some switched counties during the 2020 local government reform (Template:Interlanguage link).

NameEdit

The counties in Norway are called {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (singular) and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (plural). This name comes from the Old Norse word Template:Wikt-lang which means "district" or "county", but it is similar to the same root as "folk". It is similar in the minority languages in Norway: Template:Langx, Template:Langx, Template:Langx, Template:Langx. Prior to 1918, the counties were known as amt (singular) or amter (plural).

List of countiesEdit

Below is a list of the Norwegian counties, with their current administrative centres. The counties are administered both by appointees of the national government and by their own elected bodies. The county numbers are from the official numbering system ISO 3166-2:NO, which originally was set up to follow the coastline from the Swedish border in the southeast to the Russian border in the northeast, but with the numbering has changed with county mergers.

The island territories of Svalbard and Jan Mayen lie outside of the county system of Norway. Svalbard is administered by the Governor of Svalbard, and Jan Mayen is administered by the County Governor of Nordland (but not part of Nordland).

County ISO-code Capital Most populous municipality Governor Mayor Area (km2) Pop. Electoral district(s) County governor agency Official language form
File:Oslo komm.svg Oslo NO-03 City of Oslo Ingvild Aleksandersen Anne Lindboe (H) 454.12 700,000 Oslo Østfold, Buskerud, Oslo og Akershus Neutral
Template:Coat of arms NO-11 Stavanger Bent Høie Marianne Chesak (Ap) 9,377.10 475,000 Rogaland Rogaland Neutral
Template:Coat of arms NO-15 Molde Ålesund Else-May Norderhus Jon Aasen (Ap) 14,355.62 270,000 Møre og Romsdal Møre og Romsdal Nynorsk
Template:Coat of arms NO-18 Bodø Tom Cato Karlsen Kari Anne Bøkestad Andreassen (Sp) 38,154.62 239,000 Nordland Nordland Neutral
Template:Coat of arms NO-31 Sarpsborg Fredrikstad Ingvild Aleksandersen Sindre Martinsen-Evje (Ap) 4,180.7 299,647 Østfold Østfold, Buskerud, Oslo og Akershus Neutral
Template:Coat of arms NO-32 Oslo Bærum Ingvild Aleksandersen Thomas Sjøvold (H) 4,918.0 630,752 Akershus Østfold, Buskerud, Oslo og Akershus Neutral
Template:Coat of arms NO-33 Drammen Ingvild Aleksandersen Tore Opdal Hansen (H) 14,908.0 284,955 Buskerud Østfold, Buskerud, Oslo og Akershus Neutral
Template:Coat of arms NO-34 Hamar Ringsaker Knut Storberget Even Aleksander Hagen (Ap) 52,072.44 375,000 Hedmark
Oppland 		Innlandet Neutral
File:Vestfold våpen 2024.svg Vestfold NO-39 Tønsberg Sandefjord Trond Rønningen Anne Strømøy (H) 2,167.7 253,555 Vestfold Vestfold og Telemark Bokmål
File:Telemark våpen 2024.svg Telemark NO-40 Skien Trond Rønningen Sven Tore Løkslid (Ap) 15,298.16 175,546 Telemark Vestfold og Telemark Neutral
Template:Coat of arms NO-42 Kristiansand Gina Lund Arne Thomassen (H) 16,434.12 299,000 Aust-Agder
Vest-Agder 		Agder Neutral
Template:Coat of arms NO-46 Bergen Liv Signe Navarsete Jon Askeland (Sp) 33,870.99 632,000 Hordaland
Sogn og Fjordane 		Vestland Nynorsk
Template:Coat of arms
Trööndelage 		NO-50 Steinkjer Trondheim Frank Jenssen Tomas Iver Hallem (Sp) 42,201.59 465,000 Nord-Trøndelag
Sør-Trøndelag 		Trøndelag Neutral
Template:Coat of arms NO-55 Tromsø Elisabeth Aspaker Kristina Torbergsen (Ap) 26,189.43 168,340 Troms Troms og Finnmark Neutral
Template:Coat of arms NO-56 Vadsø Alta Elisabeth Aspaker Hans-Jacob Bønå (H) 48,637.43 75,540 Finnmark Troms og Finnmark Neutral

Responsibilities and significanceEdit

Every county has two main organisations, both with underlying organisations.

  1. The county municipality (Template:Langx) has a county council (Template:Langx), whose members are elected by the inhabitants. The county municipality is responsible mainly for some medium level schools, public transport organisation, regional road planning, culture, among other things.
  2. The county governor (Template:Langx) is an authority directly overseen by the Norwegian government. It surveills the municipalities and receives complaints from people over their actions. It also controls areas where the government needs local direct ruling outside the municipalities.

HistoryEdit

Fylke (1st period)Edit

From the consolidation to a single kingdom, Norway was divided into a number of geographic regions that each had its own legislative assembly or Thing, such as Gulating (Western Norway) and Frostating (Trøndelag). The second-order subdivision of these regions was into fylker, such as Egdafylke and Hordafylke. In 1914, the historical term fylke was brought into use again to replace the term amt introduced during the union with Denmark. Current day counties (fylker) often, but not necessarily, correspond to the historical areas.

Fylke in the 10th–13th centuriesEdit

Counties (folkland) under the Borgarting, located in Viken with the seat at Sarpsborg:<ref name="bor">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:Div col

Template:Div col end Counties (first three fylke, last two bilandskap) under the Eidsivating, located in Oplandene with the seat at Eidsvoll:<ref name=bor/>

Counties under the Gulating, located in Vestlandet with the seat at Gulen:<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:Div col

Template:Div col end Counties under the Frostating, located in Trøndelag with the seat at Frosta: Template:Div col

Template:Div col end Counties not attached to a thing: Template:Div col

Template:Div col end Finnmark (including northern Troms), the Faroe Islands, the Orkney Islands, Shetland (the Shetland Islands), the Hebrides, the Isle of Man, Iceland and Greenland were Norwegian skattland ("taxed countries"), and did not belong to any known counties or assembly areas.

SysselEdit

Syssel in 1300Edit

From the end of the 12th century, Norway was divided into several syssel. The head of the syssel was the syslemann, who represented the king locally. The following shows a reconstruction of the different syssel in Norway c. 1300, including sub-syssel where these seem established.<ref>Danielsen (et al.), 1991, p. 77</ref> Template:Div col

Template:Div col end

LenEdit

From 1308, the term len (plural len) in Norway signified an administrative region roughly equivalent to today's counties. The historic len was an important administrative entity during the period of Dano-Norwegian unification after their amalgamation as one state, which lasted for the period 1536<ref>Christian III, king of Denmark-Norway, carried out the Protestant Reformation in Norway in 1536.</ref>–1814.

At the beginning of the 16th century the political divisions were variable, but consistently included four main len and approximately 30 smaller sub-regions with varying connections to a main len. Up to 1660 the four principal len were headquartered at the major fortresses Bohus Fortress, Akershus Fortress, Bergenhus Fortress and the fortified city of Trondheim.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The sub-regions corresponded to the church districts for the Lutheran church in Norway.

Len in 1536Edit

These four principal len were in the 1530s divided into approximately 30 smaller regions. From that point forward through the beginning of the 17th century the number of subsidiary len was reduced, while the composition of the principal len became more stable.Template:Citation needed

Len in 1660Edit

From 1660 Norway had nine principal len comprising 17 subsidiary len: Template:Div col

Template:Div col end

Len written as län continues to be used as the administrative equivalent of county in Sweden to this day. Each len was governed by a lenman.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

AmtEdit

With the royal decree of 19 February 1662, each len was designated an amt (plural amt) and the lenmann was titled amtmann, from German Amt (office), reflecting the bias of the Danish court of that period.Template:Citation needed

Amt in 1671Edit

After 1671 Norway was divided into four principal amt or stiftsamt and there were nine subordinate amt: Template:Div col

Template:Div col end

Amt in 1730Edit

From 1730 Norway had the following amt: Template:Div col

Template:Div col end

At this time there were also two counties (Template:Langx) controlled by actual counts, together forming what is now Vestfold county:

Amt in 1760Edit

In 1760 Norway had the following stiftamt and amt:<ref>Danielsen (et al.), 1991, p. 153</ref> Template:Div col

Template:Div col end

Fylke (2nd period)Edit

File:Norges valgkretser.png
Counties of Norway between 1972 and 2018

From 1919 each amt was renamed a fylke (plural fylke(r)) (county) and the amtmann was now titled fylkesmann (county governor).

The county numbers are from the official numbering system ISO 3166-2:NO, which originally was set up to follow the coastline from the Swedish border in the southeast to the Russian border in the northeast, but the numbering has changed with county mergers. The number 13, 16 and 17 were dropped, and the number 50 was added to account for changes over the years. The lack of a county number 13 is due to the city of Bergen no longer being its own county, and is unrelated to fear of the number 13.

In 2018, Sør-Trøndelag was merged with Nord-Trøndelag into the new county of Trøndelag, and several followed.

ISO-code County Admini­strative centre Area (km2) Pop. (2016) County after
1 January 2020 		County after
1 January 2024
01 Template:Coat of arms Sarpsborg Template:04,180.69 290,412 Template:Coat of arms Viken Template:Coat of arms
02 Template:Coat of arms Oslo Template:04,917.94 596,704 Template:Coat of arms
06 Template:Coat of arms Drammen 14,910.94 278,028 Template:Coat of arms
03 Template:Coat of arms City of Oslo Template:0454.07 660,987 Template:Coat of arms Oslo
04 Template:Coat of arms Hamar 27,397.76 195,443 Template:Coat of arms Innlandet
05 Template:Coat of arms Lillehammer 25,192.10 188,945
07 Template:Coat of arms Tønsberg Template:02,225.08 245,160 Template:Coat of arms Vestfold og Telemark File:Vestfold våpen 2024.svg Vestfold
08 Template:Coat of arms Skien 15,296.34 172,527 File:Telemark våpen 2024.svg Telemark
09 Template:Coat of arms Arendal Template:09,157.77 115,873 Template:Coat of arms Agder
10 Template:Coat of arms Kristiansand Template:07,276.91 182,922
11 Template:Coat of arms Stavanger Template:09,375.97 470,907 Template:Coat of arms Rogaland
12 Template:Coat of arms Bergen 15,438.06 517,601 Template:Coat of arms Vestland
13 Not in use from 1972 onwardsTemplate:Efn
14 Template:Coat of arms Hermansverk 18,623.41 109,623
15 Template:Coat of arms Molde 15,101.39 265,181 Template:Coat of arms Møre og Romsdal
16 Not in use from 2018 onwardsTemplate:Efn
17 Not in use from 2018 onwardsTemplate:Efn
18 Template:Coat of arms Bodø 38,482.39 241,948 Template:Coat of arms Nordland
19 Template:Coat of arms Tromsø 25,862.91 164,613 Template:Coat of arms Troms og Finnmark Template:Coat of arms
20 Template:Coat of arms Vadsø 48,631.04 Template:075,886 Template:Coat of arms
50 Template:Coat of armsTemplate:Efn SteinkjerTemplate:Efn 41,254.29 450,496 Template:Coat of arms Trøndelag

Template:Notelist

Fylke (3rd period)Edit

In 2017, the Norwegian government announced the merge of the existing 19 fylker into 11 new fylker by 2020. As a result, several government responsibilities were transferred to the new regions.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

New counties
  • Troms og Finnmark, by merging Finnmark and Troms counties in 2020. Disestablished in 2023, split into Finnmark and Troms counties.
  • Nordland, no change, same as Nordland county.
  • Trøndelag, by merging Nord-Trøndelag and Sør-Trøndelag counties in 2018.
  • Møre og Romsdal, no change, same as Møre og Romsdal county.
  • Vestland, by merging Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane counties in 2020.
  • Rogaland, no change, same as Rogaland county.
  • Agder, by merging Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder counties in 2020.
  • Vestfold og Telemark, by merging Telemark and Vestfold counties in 2020. Disestablished in 2023, split into Telemark and Vestfold counties.
  • Innlandet, by merging Hedmark and Oppland counties in 2020.
  • Viken, by merging Akershus, Buskerud, and Østfold counties in 2020. Disestablished in 2023, split into Akershus, Buskerud, and Østfold counties.
  • Oslo, no change, same as Oslo county.

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

FootnotesEdit

Template:Reflist

BibliographyEdit

Template:Counties of Norway Template:Subdivisions of Norway Template:Articles on first-level administrative divisions of European countries

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