Counties of Lithuania

Lithuania

This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of
Lithuania



Other countries · Atlas
Politics portal

The territory of Lithuania is divided into 10 counties (Lithuanian: singular apskritis, plural apskritys), all named after their capitals. The counties are divided into 60 municipalities (Lithuanian: singular savivaldybė, plural savivaldybės): 9 city municipalities, 43 district municipalities and 8 municipalities. Each municipality is then divided into elderates (Lithuanian: singular seniūnija, plural seniūnijos). This division was created in 1994 and slightly modified in 2000.

Counties are administered by county governors (Lithuanian: singular  – apskrities viršininkas, plural  – apskrities viršininkai) who are appointed by the central government in Vilnius. Their primary duty is to ensure that the municipalities obey the laws and the Constitution of Lithuania. They do not have great powers vested in them, and so it is suggested that 10 counties are too much for Lithuania as the two smallest counties administer only four municipalities. There is a proposal to replace the counties with four or five lands, a new administrative unit, that would be decided according to the ethnographic regions of Lithuania and based on the 5 major cities with the population more than 100,000.

Modern apskritys should not be confused with apskritys that existed in the independent Lithuania during the interwar period. At that time Lithuania had a two-step administrative division: apskritys that were subdivided into valsčius. Lithuania now has a three-step division: counties, municipalities, and elderates (apkritys, savivaldybės, and seniūnijos). See subdivisions of Lithuania for details.

Map

This map shows counties as well as municipalities. Eight city municipalities and two municipalities are marked by numbers:

1 – Vilnius city municipality
2 – Kaunas city municipality
3 – Klaipėda city municipality

4 – Panevėžys city municipality
5 – Šiauliai city municipality
6 – Alytus city municipality

7 – Birštonas municipality
8 – Palanga city municipality
9 – Visaginas city municipality
10 – Neringa municipality

Municipalities in Lithuania.png

List

# County
(media help)
Capital Area
in km² (rank)
Population
in 2001 (census)[1]
Population
in 2008 (rank)[2]
Population
per km² (rank)[2]
Municipalities
1 Alytus County
(listen • info)

Alytus County COA.png
Alytus 5,425 (6) 187,769 177,040 (7) 32.6 (8)
  • Alytus city municipality
  • Alytus district municipality
  • Druskininkai municipality
  • Lazdijai district municipality
  • Varėna district municipality
2 Kaunas County
(listen • info)

Kaunas County COA.png
Kaunas 8,089 (3) 701,529 673,706 (2) 83.3 (2)
  • Birštonas municipality
  • Jonava district municipality
  • Kaišiadorys district municipality
  • Kaunas city municipality
  • Kaunas district municipality
  • Kėdainiai district municipality
  • Prienai district municipality
  • Raseiniai district municipality
3 Klaipėda County
(listen • info)

Klaipeda County COA.png
Klaipėda 5,209 (7) 385,768 378,843 (3) 72.7 (3)
4 Marijampolė County
(listen • info)

Marijampole County COA.png
Marijampolė 4,463 (8) 188,634 181,219 (6) 40.6 (5)
  • Kalvarija municipality
  • Kazlų Rūda municipality
  • Marijampolė municipality
  • Šakiai district municipality
  • Vilkaviškis district municipality
5 Panevėžys County
(listen • info)

Panevezys County COA.png
Panevėžys 7,881 (4) 299,990 284,235 (5) 36.1 (7)
  • Biržai district municipality
  • Kupiškis district municipality
  • Panevėžys city municipality
  • Panevėžys district municipality
  • Pasvalys district municipality
  • Rokiškis district municipality
6 Šiauliai County
(listen • info)

Siauliai County COA.png
Šiauliai 8,540 (2) 370,096 349,876 (4) 41.0 (4)
  • Akmenė district municipality
  • Joniškis district municipality
  • Kelmė district municipality
  • Pakruojis district municipality
  • Radviliškis district municipality
  • Šiauliai city municipality
  • Šiauliai district municipality
7 Tauragė County
(listen • info)

Taurage County COA.png
Tauragė 4,411 (9) 134,275 127,378 (10) 28.9 (9)
  • Jurbarkas district municipality
  • Pagėgiai municipality
  • Šilalė district municipality
  • Tauragė district municipality
8 Telšiai County
(listen • info)

Telsiai County COA.png
Telšiai 4,350 (10) 179,885 173,383 (8) 39.9 (6)
  • Mažeikiai district municipality
  • Plungė district municipality
  • Rietavas municipality
  • Telšiai district municipality
9 Utena County
(listen • info)

Utena County COA.png
Utena 7,201 (5) 185,962 172,580 (9) 24.0 (10)
  • Anykščiai district municipality
  • Ignalina district municipality
  • Molėtai district municipality
  • Utena district municipality
  • Visaginas city municipality
  • Zarasai district municipality
10 Vilnius County
(listen • info)

Vilnius County COA.png
Vilnius 9,729 (1) 850,064 848,097 (1) 87.2 (1)
  • Elektrėnai municipality
  • Šalčininkai district municipality
  • Širvintos district municipality
  • Švenčionys district municipality
  • Trakai district municipality
  • Ukmergė district municipality
  • Vilnius city municipality
  • Vilnius district municipality

See also

References

  1. "Number of population by county, city (town) and municipality". Department of Statistics to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. 2005-12-01. http://www.stat.gov.lt/en/pages/view/?id=1712. Retrieved 2008-07-30. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 "M3010211: >>>Total area and population by administrative territory". Department of Statistics to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. http://db1.stat.gov.lt/statbank/SelectVarVal/Define.asp?Maintable=M3010211&PLanguage=1. Retrieved 2008-07-30.