Municipalities of Iceland

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Lower level municipality map of Iceland
Lower level municipality map of Iceland
Iceland

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The municipalities of Iceland are local administrative areas that provide a number of services to their inhabitants such as kindergartens, elementary schools, waste management, social services, public housing, public transportation, services to senior citizens and handicapped people etc. They also govern zoning and can voluntarily take on additional functions if they have the budget for it. The autonomy of municipalities over their own matters is guaranteed by the constitution of Iceland.

The municipalities are governed by municipal councils which are directly elected every four years, municipal elections were last held on May 27, 2006. The sizes of these councils vary from 3 members in the smallest municipalities to 15 in the largest one. Most municipalities except for the very small ones hire an executive manager who may or may not be a member of the municipal council, these managers are usually referred to as mayors (bæjarstjóri / borgarstjóri) in the mostly urban municipalities but "commune manager" (sveitarstjóri) in the rural or mixed municipalities.

The origin of the municipalities can be traced back to the commonwealth period in the 10th century when rural communities were organized into communes (hreppar) with the main purpose of providing help for the poorest induviduals in society. When urbanization began up in Iceland durin the 18th and 19th century, several independent townships (kaupstaðir) were created. The role of municipalities was further formalized during the 20th century and by the end of the century there was no longer any distinction made between urban and rural municipalities. The trend in recent years has been to transfer more functions and power from the state to the municipalities, this has called for larger municipalities. The government encourages municipalities to merge but has taken a different approach to the issue than governments in other Nordic countries where forced amalgamation is regularly carried out (such as the municipal reform in Denmark that will take effect in 2007). Instead the process is voluntary, municipalities negotiate possible mergers between themselves and the merger has to be agreed upon by the people of each municipality in a referendum. A similar approach is used by the Faroese government. Municipalities with fewer than 50 people may be merged with others by force though.

The number of municipalities peaked in the mid-20th century, there were 229 of them in 1950. In 1995 their number had reduced to 170. Presently there are 79. In population, they range from 50 to 118,000 and by area they range from 2 km² to 8884 km². The current average population is about 4000.

Following is a list of Icelandic municipalities ranked by population.

Rank Name Population
Dec. 1. 2007		 Change since
Dec. 1. 2006		  %
1 Reykjavík 117,721 +1275 +
2 Kópavogur 28,561 +1025 +
3 Hafnarfjörður 24,839 +1165 +
4 Akureyri 17,253 +431 +
5 Reykjanesbær 13,256 +1328 +
6 Garðabær 9913 +442 +
7 Mosfellsbær 8147 +646 +
8 Árborg 7565 +285 +
9 Akranes 6345 +385 +
10 Fjarðabyggð 5111 -594 +
11 Seltjarnarnes 4428 -39 -
12 Fljótsdalshérað 4073 -571 -
13 Vestmannaeyjar 4040 -35 -
14 Skagafjörður 4027 -51 -
15 Ísafjarðarbær 3963 -135 -
16 Borgarbyggð 3742 +29 +
17 Norðurþing 2970 -53 -
18 Grindavík 2760 +63 +
19 Álftanes 2361 +83 +
20 Hveragerði 2274 +85 +
21 Fjallabyggð 2188 -73 -
22 Hornafjörður 2120 -66 -
23 Dalvíkurbyggð 1951 -15 -
24 Ölfus 1930 +76 +
25 Rangárþing eystra 1741 +47 +
26 Sandgerði 1723 +60 +
27 Snæfellsbær 1703 +1 +
28 Rangárþing ytra 1547 +21 +0.62%
29 Garður 1451 -35 -
30 Sveitarfélagið Vogar 1225 +119 +
31 Húnaþing vestra 1150 -17 -
32 Stykkishólmur 1103 -46 -
33 Eyjafjarðarsveit 1009 +11 +
34 Bláskógabyggð 972 +51 +
35 Vesturbyggð 920 -17 -
36 Grundarfjörður 918 -36 -
37 Bolungarvík 904 -1 -
39 Blönduós 895 +2 +
40 Hrunamannahreppur 794 +8 +
41 Seyðisfjörður 716 -10 -
42 Dalabyggð 710 +28 +
43 Vopnafjarðarhreppur 701 -11 -
44 Hvalfjarðarsveit 683 +67 +
45 Þingeyjarsveit 681 -18 -
46 Flóahreppur 576 +25 +
47 Skagaströnd 545 -17 -3.02%
48 Skeiða- og Gnúpverjahreppur 535 +8 +
49 Strandabyggð 500 -7 -
50 Mýrdalshreppur 488 +8 +
51 Langanesbyggð 479 -39 -
52 Skaftárhreppur 466 -19 -
53 Húnavatnshreppur 451 -12 -
54 Djúpavogshreppur 450 -13 -
55 Hörgárbyggð 416 +5 +
56 Skútustaðahreppur 403 -7 -
57 Svalbarðsstrandarhreppur 385 +4 +
58 Grímsnes- og Grafningshreppur 379 +4 +
59 Fljótsdalshreppur 366 -158 -
60 Grýtubakkahreppur 357 -11 -
61 Tálknafjörður 290 -2 -
62 Reykhólahreppur 266 +15 +
63 Aðaldælahreppur 261 +4 +
64 Breiðdalshreppur 218 -26 -
65 Súðavíkurhreppur 214 0 0%
66 Akrahreppur 204 -18 -
67 Kjósarhreppur 191 +10 +
68 Arnarneshreppur 171 -5 -
69 Ásahreppur 171 +13 +
70 Borgarfjarðarhreppur 146 +0 +
71 Eyja- og Miklaholtshreppur 130 -10 -0
72 Svalbarðshreppur 110 +4 +6
73 Skagabyggð 106 +10 +
74 Grímsey 103 +4 +
75 Kaldrananeshreppur 102 +1 +
76 Bæjarhreppur 102 +2 +
77 Skorradalshreppur 60 -4
77 Tjörneshreppur 60 +0 +
78 Helgafellssveit 58 +0 +
79 Árneshreppur 48 -2 -
∑ Iceland 312,872 +5611 +2.4%

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Twenty largest municipalities of Iceland
v • d • e
Articles on first-level administrative divisions of European countries
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Table of administrative country subdivisions by country