Wikipedia

Counties of Norway

There are15 counties inNorway.The 15countiesareadministrative regionsthat are the first-leveladministrative divisions of Norway.The counties are further subdivided into 357municipalities(Norwegian:kommune). The island territories ofSvalbardandJan Mayenare outside the county divisions and they are ruled directly from the national level. The capital city ofOslois both a county and a municipality.

Counties of Norway
Norges fylker(Bokmål)
Noregs fylke(Nynorsk)
CategoryUnitary unit
LocationNorway
Number15 counties (as of 2024-01-01)
AreasSmallest (including water):Oslo,454.12 km2(175.34 sq mi)
Largest (including water):Innlandet,52,072.44 km2(20,105.28 sq mi)
Government
Subdivisions

In 2017, theSolberg governmentdecided 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.[1]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.[2]Three of the newly merged counties, namelyVestfold og Telemark,Viken[3][4]andTroms og Finnmark,[5]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 (Kommunereformen i Norge[no]).

Name

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The counties in Norway are calledfylke(singular) andfylker(plural). This name comes from theOld Norsewordfylkiwhich means "district" or "county", but it is similar to the same root as "folk". It is similar in the minority languages in Norway:Northern Sami:fylka,Southern Sami:fylhke,Lule Sami:fylkka,Kven:fylkki.Prior to 1918, the counties were known asamt(singular) oramter(plural).

List of counties

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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 systemISO 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 ofSvalbardandJan Mayenlie outside of the county system of Norway. Svalbard is administered by theGovernor of Svalbard,and Jan Mayen is administered by theCounty 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
Oslo NO-03 City of Oslo Ingvild Aleksandersen Anne Lindboe(H) 454.12 700,000 Oslo Østfold, Buskerud, Oslo og Akershus Neutral
Rogaland NO-11 Stavanger Bent Høie Marianne Chesak (Ap) 9,377.10 475,000 Rogaland Rogaland Neutral
Møre og Romsdal NO-15 Molde Ålesund Else-May Norderhus Jon Aasen (Ap) 14,355.62 270,000 Møre og Romsdal Møre og Romsdal Nynorsk
Nordland NO-18 Bodø Tom Cato Karlsen Kari Anne Bøkestad Andreassen(Sp) 38,154.62 239,000 Nordland Nordland Neutral
Østfold NO-31 Sarpsborg Fredrikstad Ingvild Aleksandersen Sindre Martinsen-Evje (Ap) 4,180.7 299,647 Østfold Østfold, Buskerud, Oslo og Akershus Neutral
Akershus NO-32 Oslo Bærum Ingvild Aleksandersen Thomas Sjøvold (H) 4,918.0 630,752 Akershus Østfold, Buskerud, Oslo og Akershus Neutral
Buskerud NO-33 Drammen Ingvild Aleksandersen Tore Opdal Hansen (H) 14,908.0 284,955 Buskerud Østfold, Buskerud, Oslo og Akershus Neutral
Innlandet NO-34 Hamar Ringsaker Knut Storberget Even Aleksander Hagen(Ap) 52,072.44 375,000 Hedmark
Oppland 		Innlandet Neutral
Vestfold NO-39 Tønsberg Sandefjord Trond Rønningen Anne Strømøy (H) 2,167.7 253,555 Vestfold Vestfold og Telemark Bokmål
Telemark NO-40 Skien Trond Rønningen Sven Tore Løkslid(Ap) 15,298.16 175,546 Telemark Vestfold og Telemark Neutral
Agder NO-42 Kristiansand Gina Lund Arne Thomassen(H) 16,434.12 299,000 Aust-Agder
Vest-Agder 		Agder Neutral
Vestland NO-46 Bergen Liv Signe Navarsete Jon Askeland (Sp) 33,870.99 632,000 Hordaland
Sogn og Fjordane 		Vestland Nynorsk
Trøndelag
Trööndelage 		NO-50 Steinkjer Trondheim Frank Jenssen Tomas Iver Hallem(Sp) 42,201.59 465,000 Nord-Trøndelag
Sør-Trøndelag 		Trøndelag Neutral
Troms NO-55 Tromsø Elisabeth Aspaker Kristina Torbergsen (Ap) 26,189.43 168,340 Troms Troms og Finnmark Neutral
Finnmark NO-56 Vadsø Alta Elisabeth Aspaker Hans-Jacob Bønå (H) 48,637.43 75,540 Finnmark Troms og Finnmark Neutral

Responsibilities and significance

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

  1. Thecounty municipality(Norwegian:Fylkeskommune) has acounty council(Norwegian:Fylkesting), 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. Thecounty governor(Norwegian:Statsforvalteren) 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.

History

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Fylke(1st period)

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From the consolidation to a single kingdom,Norwaywas divided into a number of geographic regions that each had its own legislative assembly orThing,such asGulating(Western Norway) andFrostating(Trøndelag). The second-order subdivision of these regions was intofylker,such asEgdafylkeandHordafylke.In 1914, the historical termfylkewas brought into use again to replace the termamtintroduced during theunionwithDenmark.Current day counties (fylker) often, but not necessarily, correspond to the historical areas.

Fylkein the 10th–13th centuries

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Counties (folkland) under theBorgarting,located inVikenwith the seat atSarpsborg:[6]

Counties (first threefylke,last twobilandskap) under theEidsivating,located inOplandenewith the seat atEidsvoll:[6]

Counties under theGulating,located inVestlandetwith the seat atGulen:[7]

Counties under theFrostating,located inTrøndelagwith the seat atFrosta:

Counties not attached to athing:

Finnmark(including northernTroms), theFaroe Islands,theOrkney Islands,Shetland(theShetland Islands), theHebrides,theIsle of Man,IcelandandGreenlandwere Norwegianskattland( "taxed countries" ), and did not belong to any known counties or assembly areas.

Syssel

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Sysselin 1300

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From the end of the 12th century, Norway was divided into severalsyssel.The head of thesysselwas thesyslemann,who represented the king locally. The following shows a reconstruction of the differentsysselin Norway c. 1300, including sub-sysselwhere these seem established.[8]

Len

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From 1308, the termlen(plurallen) inNorwaysignified an administrative region roughly equivalent to today's counties. The historiclenwas an important administrative entity during the period ofDano-Norwegianunification after theiramalgamationas one state, which lasted for the period 1536[9]–1814.

At the beginning of the 16th century the political divisions were variable, but consistently included four mainlenand approximately 30 smaller sub-regions with varying connections to a mainlen.Up to 1660 the four principallenwere headquartered at the major fortressesBohus Fortress,Akershus Fortress,Bergenhus Fortressand the fortified city ofTrondheim.[10]The sub-regions corresponded to the church districts for theLutheranchurch in Norway.

Lenin 1536

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These four principallenwere in the 1530s divided into approximately 30 smaller regions. From that point forward through the beginning of the 17th century the number of subsidiarylenwas reduced, while the composition of the principallenbecame more stable.[citation needed]

Lenin 1660

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From 1660 Norway had nine principallencomprising 17 subsidiarylen:

Lenwritten asläncontinues to be used as the administrative equivalent of county in Sweden to this day. Eachlenwas governed by alenman.[11]

Amt

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With the royal decree of 19 February 1662, eachlenwas designated anamt(pluralamt) and thelenmannwas titledamtmann,from GermanAmt(office), reflecting the bias of the Danish court of that period.[citation needed]

Amtin 1671

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After 1671 Norway was divided into four principalamtorstiftsamtand there were nine subordinateamt:

Amtin 1730

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From 1730 Norway had the followingamt:

At this time there were also two counties (Norwegian:grevskap) controlled by actualcounts,together forming what is nowVestfoldcounty:

Amtin 1760

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In 1760 Norway had the followingstiftamtandamt:[12]

Fylke(2nd period)

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Counties of Norway between 1972 and 2018

From 1919 eachamtwas renamed afylke(pluralfylke(r)) (county) and theamtmannwas now titledfylkesmann(county governor).

The county numbers are from the official numbering systemISO 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 ofBergenno longer being its own county, and is unrelated tofear of the number 13.

In 2018,Sør-Trøndelagwas merged withNord-Trøndelaginto the new county ofTrøndelag,and several followed.

ISO-code County Admini­strative centre Area (km2) Pop. (2016) County after
1 January 2020 		County after
1 January 2024
01 Østfold Sarpsborg 4,180.69 290,412 Viken Østfold
02 Akershus Oslo 4,917.94 596,704 Akershus
06 Buskerud Drammen 14,910.94 278,028 Buskerud
03 Oslo City of Oslo 454.07 660,987 Oslo
04 Hedmark Hamar 27,397.76 195,443 Innlandet
05 Oppland Lillehammer 25,192.10 188,945
07 Vestfold Tønsberg 2,225.08 245,160 Vestfold og Telemark Vestfold
08 Telemark Skien 15,296.34 172,527 Telemark
09 Aust-Agder Arendal 9,157.77 115,873 Agder
10 Vest-Agder Kristiansand 7,276.91 182,922
11 Rogaland Stavanger 9,375.97 470,907 Rogaland
12 Hordaland Bergen 15,438.06 517,601 Vestland
13 Not in use from 1972 onwards[a]
14 Sogn og Fjordane Hermansverk 18,623.41 109,623
15 Møre og Romsdal Molde 15,101.39 265,181 Møre og Romsdal
16 Not in use from 2018 onwards[b]
17 Not in use from 2018 onwards[b]
18 Nordland Bodø 38,482.39 241,948 Nordland
19 Troms Tromsø 25,862.91 164,613 Troms og Finnmark Troms
20 Finnmark Vadsø 48,631.04 75,886 Finnmark
50 Trøndelag[b] Steinkjer[c] 41,254.29 450,496 Trøndelag
  1. ^Formerly used forBergencounty, merged intoHordalandon 1 January 1972
  2. ^abcFormerly used forNord-Trøndelag(#17) andSør-Trøndelag(#16) counties, merged asTrøndelagon 1 January 2018
  3. ^Steinkjer is the administrative centre, but the county mayor is seated inTrondheim.Steinkjer and Trondheim are sometimes named as co-capitals

Fylke(3rd period)

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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.[13]

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 also

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References

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Footnotes

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  1. ^"Dette er Norges nye regioner".vg.no.21 February 2017.Archivedfrom the original on 9 March 2018.Retrieved28 April2018.
  2. ^"Fylkesinndelingen fra 2024".5 July 2022.
  3. ^Lilleås, Heidi Schei (October 2019)."Monica Mæland om Viken-dramaet: Vil ikke spekulere".Nettavisen.
  4. ^Lars Roede,"Viken og Innlandet: Amatørmessige logoer og uhistoriske navn",Aftenposten,11 January 2020
  5. ^Grønning, Trygve (2021-03-17)."Fylkesrådslederen om sammenslåingen: – Staten har påført oss dype sår".NRK(in Norwegian Bokmål).Retrieved2021-03-29.
  6. ^ab"Lagting og lagsogn frem til 1797".Borgarting lagmannsrett.Archivedfrom the original on 2011-11-21.
  7. ^"Frå lagting til allting".Gulatinget.Archivedfrom the original on 2015-04-09.
  8. ^Danielsen (et al.), 1991, p. 77
  9. ^Christian III,king of Denmark-Norway, carried out theProtestant Reformationin Norway in 1536.
  10. ^Kavli, Guthorm(1987).Norges festninger.Universitetsforlaget.ISBN82-00-18430-7.
  11. ^Jesperson, Leon, ed. (2000).A Revolution from Above? The Power State of 16th and 17th Century Scandinavia.Odense University Press.ISBN87-7838-407-9.
  12. ^Danielsen (et al.), 1991, p. 153
  13. ^moderniseringsdepartementet, Kommunal- og (7 July 2017)."Regionreform".Regjeringen.no.Archivedfrom the original on 23 March 2018.Retrieved28 April2018.

Bibliography

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  • Danielsen, Rolf; Dyrvik, Ståle; Grønlie, Tore; Helle, Knut; Hovland, Edgar (2007) [1991].Grunntrekk i norsk historie(1 ed.). Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.ISBN978-82-00-21273-7.
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