Editing Counties of Denmark

{{short description|Former administrative subdivisions of metropolitan Denmark}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}{{Use British English|date=January 2025}}
{{Politics of Denmark}}
The '''Counties of Denmark''' ({{langx|da|Danmarks amter}}) were former subdivisions of metropolitan [[Denmark]] and overseas territories, used primarily for administrative regions, with each county having its own council with substantial powers. Originally there had been twenty-four counties, but the number was reduced to roughly fourteen in 1970 &ndash; the number fluctuated slightly over the next three decades. In 2006 there were thirteen traditional counties as well as three municipalities with county status (the island of [[Bornholm]], which was a county from 1660 until 2002, became a ''regional municipality'' with county powers, but only briefly from 2003 until 2006). On 1 January 2007, as a result of the ''[[strukturreformen]]'', the counties were abolished and replaced by five larger ''[[Regions of Denmark|regions]]'' which, unlike the counties, are not municipalities.

[[Copenhagen County]] comprised all the municipalities of [[Metropolitan Copenhagen]], except [[Copenhagen Municipality]] and [[Frederiksberg Municipality]] which, on account of their peculiarity of being outside any of the traditional counties, had the equivalent of "county status". On 1 January 2007 these two municipalities lost their special status.

[[Greenland]] and the [[Faroe Islands]] are also part of the [[Danish Realm]], but both enjoy internal autonomy. Both are largely self-governing, and each community sends two members to the Danish [[Folketing|Parliament]]. The Faroe Islands obtained self-government in 1948; from 1816 to 1948 the islands had the status of a Danish county. Greenland changed from a colony to an overseas [[County of Greenland|county]] in 1953, and subsequently gained home rule in 1979.{{facts|date=August 2019}}

==Abolition==
A [[Strukturreformen|government proposal]] in 2004 called for the counties to be abolished and replaced by five large [[regions of Denmark|regions]] with [[health care]] as their main responsibilities: two regions in [[Jutland]], two regions in [[Zealand (Denmark)|Zealand]] and one region covering [[Funen]] and the southernmost part of Jutland. The proposal also required the municipalities to merge reducing them from 271 to 98, with a minimum of 20,000 inhabitants in each municipality, although some exceptions were made to this rule. In 2007, 25 municipalities had fewer than 30,000 inhabitants each, with the average number of inhabitants over 55,500 per municipality. Only the [[United Kingdom]] and [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]] had more populous entities at the lowest political administrative level. 

The reform was confirmed by the [[Folketing|Danish Parliament]] on 24 February 2005 and the counties were abolished on 1 January 2007.

==List of counties (1970&ndash;2006)==
[[Image:DenmarkNumbered.png|right|250px|Map of Denmark showing the former counties]]

The counties and county-level municipalities are listed below.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|- bgcolor=# cccccc
! {{vertical header|stp=1|Map no.}} !! Name !! Capital !! Type of entity !! Population (2006) !! Total area (km<sup>2</sup>) !! Pop. density<br />(per km<sup>2</sup>)
|-
|| 0 || [[County of Greenland, Denmark|Greenland County]] (from 1953 to 1979) || [[Nuuk]] || County || align="right" | n/a || align="right" | 2,166,000 (excluded from total) || align="right" | n/a
|-
|| 1 || [[Copenhagen Municipality]] || (Part of) [[Copenhagen]] || Municipality with county tasks || align="right" | 501,158 || align="right" | 91.3 || align="right" | 5,489.1 
|-
|| 2 || [[Frederiksberg Municipality]] || [[Frederiksberg]] || Municipality with county tasks || align="right" | 91,855 || align="right" | 8.7 || align="right" | 10,560.5 
|-
|| 3 || [[Copenhagen County]] || [[Glostrup]] || County || align="right" | 618,529 || align="right" | 526 || align="right" | 1,175.9 
|-
|| 4 || [[Frederiksborg County]] || [[Hillerød]] || County || align="right" | 378,686 || align="right" | 1,347 || align="right" | 281.1 
|-
|| 5 || [[Roskilde County]] || [[Roskilde]] || County || align="right" | 241,523 || align="right" | 891 || align="right" | 271 
|-
|| 6 || [[West Zealand County]] || [[Sorø]] || County || align="right" | 307,207 || align="right" | 2,984 || align="right" | 103 
|-
|| 7 || [[Storstrøm County]] || [[Nykøbing Falster|Nykøbing]] || County || align="right" | 262,781 || align="right" | 3,398 || align="right" | 77.3
|-
|| 8 || [[Funen County]] || [[Odense]] || County || align="right" | 478,347 || align="right" | 3,485 || align="right" | 137.2 
|-
|| 9 || [[South Jutland County]] || [[Aabenraa]] || County || align="right" | 252,433 || align="right" | 3,939 || align="right" | 64.1 
|-
|| 10 || [[Ribe County]] || [[Ribe]] || County || align="right" | 224,261 || align="right" | 3,132 || align="right" | 71.6 
|-
|| 11 || [[Vejle County]] || [[Vejle]] || County || align="right" | 360,921 || align="right" | 2,997 || align="right" | 120.4 
|-
|| 12 || [[Ringkjøbing County]] || [[Ringkøbing]] || County || align="right" | 275,065 || align="right" | 4,854 || align="right" | 56.7 
|-
|| 13 || [[Viborg County]] || [[Viborg, Denmark|Viborg]] || County || align="right" | 234,896 || align="right" | 4,122 || align="right" | 57 
|-
|| 14 || [[North Jutland County]] || [[Aalborg]] || County || align="right" | 495,090 || align="right" | 6,173 || align="right" | 80.2 
|-
|| 15 || [[Aarhus County]] || [[Århus]] || County || align="right" | 661,370 || align="right" | 4,561 || align="right" | 145
|-
|| 16 || [[Bornholm]] || [[Rønne]] || county (1970–2002),<br>regional municipality with county tasks (2003–2006) || align="right" | 43,347 || align="right" | 588 || align="right" | 73.7 
|-
|-class="sortbottom"
|  colspan=2| '''[[Denmark]]''' || '''[[Copenhagen]]''' || '''Entire country''' || align="right" | '''5,427,459''' || align="right" | '''43,093''' || align="right" | '''125.9''' 
|-
|}

[[Ringkjøbing County]] used an old spelling of its name, while its capital city and state authorities used the modern Danish spelling, [[Ringkøbing]].

The archipelago [[Ertholmene]], located northeast of [[Bornholm]], have never been a part of a municipality, county, or (from 2007) region. Statistics Denmark calls them [[Christiansø]] and [[Ertholmene|Frederiksø]], named after the two inhabited islets. They are included in numbers for Denmark (92 inhabitants; 0.39 square kilometers). The land area of Denmark is 42,394 square kilometers.

== See also ==
* [[ISO 3166-2:DK]]
* [[NUTS:DK]]
* [[Administrative divisions of Greenland]]
* [[List of municipalities of Denmark (1970-2006)]]

{{Historic administrative divisions of Denmark}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.statistikbanken.dk/BEF1A Statistics Denmark ]
* [https://archive.today/20130105102401/http://www.world-gazetteer.com/wg.php?x=1124833060&men=gmap&lng=en&gln=xx&dat=32&geo=-63&srt=npan&col=aohdq Map of Denmark]
* [https://archive.today/20121217235449/http://www.kl.dk/local-reform Explanation of Municipal Reform]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071011050224/http://kommune.eniro.dk/danmarkskort/ Map with named (new) municipalities]
* [https://archive.today/20130105153404/http://www.world-gazetteer.com/wg.php?x=1124833517&men=gmap&lng=en&gln=xx&dat=32&geo=-78&srt=npan&col=aohdq Map of Faroe Islands]
* [https://archive.today/20130105094555/http://www.world-gazetteer.com/wg.php?x=1124833545&men=gmap&lng=en&gln=xx&dat=32&geo=-87&srt=npan&col=aohdq Map of Greenland]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Counties Of Denmark}}
[[Category:Counties of Denmark| ]]
[[Category:Former subdivisions of Denmark]]
[[Category:Lists of former counties|Denmark]]
[[Category:Lists of populated places in Denmark]]

[[de:Verwaltungsgliederung Dänemarks]]
[[lt:Danijos administracinis suskirstymas]]
[[pt:Subdivisões da Dinamarca]]