Counties of Denmark

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Denmark

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Politics and government of
Denmark
2001 · 2005 · 2007

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Denmark was until December 31, 2006 divided into 15 counties (Danish: amter), and 270 municipalities (kommuner). On January 1, 2007, the counties were replaced by five Regions and the number of municipalities slashed to 98.

Map of Denmark showing the former counties

Copenhagen County comprised all the municipalities of metropolitan Copenhagen, except Copenhagen Municipality and Frederiksberg Municipality.

Bornholm was originally divided in five municipalities and a county comprising the entire island. These six administrations merged on January 1, 2003 forming the new Bornholm Regional Municipality, giving it a status resembling the municipalities of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg. On January 1, 2007, these three municipalities lost their special status and their responsibilities and powers have been reduced to the same level as the 95 other municipalities.

Greenland and the Faroe Islands are also part of the Kingdom of Denmark, but both enjoy internal autonomy. Both are largely self-governing, and each community sends two members to the Danish Parliament. The Faroe Islands obtained self-government in 1948; previously the islands had the status of a Danish amt.

See also the ranked list of Danish counties.

Contents

[edit] Reform

A government proposal in 2004 called for the counties to be replaced by five large regions with health care as their sole responsibilities; two regions in Jutland, two regions in 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 about 100, with a minimum of 20,000 inhabitants in each municipality, although some exceptions were made to this rule. From 2007 25 municipalities have fewer than 30,000 inhabitants each, with the average number of inhabitants being over 55,500 per municipality. Only Great Britain and Ireland have more populous entities at the lowest political administrative level.

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

[edit] List of counties (1970-2006)

Name Capital Status Population (2006) Area (km²) Pop. density
(per km²)
1 Copenhagen Copenhagen Municipality 501,158 91.3 5,489.1
2 Frederiksberg Frederiksberg Municipality 91,855 8.7 10,560.5
3 Copenhagen County Glostrup County 618,529 526 1,175.9
4 Frederiksborg County Hillerød County 378,686 1,347 281.1
5 Roskilde County Roskilde County 241,523 891 271
6 West Zealand County Sorø County 307,207 2,984 103
7 Storstrøm County Nykøbing County 262,781 3,398 77.3
8 Funen County Odense County 478,347 3,485 137.2
9 South Jutland County Aabenraa County 252,433 3,939 64.1
10 Ribe County Ribe County 224,261 3,132 71.6
11 Vejle County Vejle County 360,921 2,997 120.4
12 Ringkjøbing County Ringkøbing County 275,065 4,854 56.7
13 Viborg County Viborg County 234,896 4,122 57
14 North Jutland County Ålborg County 495,090 6,173 80.2
15 Aarhus County Århus County 661,370 4,561 145
16 Bornholm Rønne Regional municipality 43,245 587 73.6
Denmark Copenhagen Entire country 5,427,459 43,093 125.9

Note: Ringkjøbing County officially used a different spelling than its capital city, Ringkøbing.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links