1970 Danish Municipal Reform

The 1970 Danish Municipal Reform was a large administrative reform in Denmark which on 1 April 1970 reduced the number of Danish municipalities (singular Danish: Kommune) from 1,098 to 277 and the number of counties (singular Danish: Amt) from 25 to 14. The reform also abolished the last privileges for market towns (Danish Købstad).

History

1841 saw the formation of parish municipalities (Singular Danish: Sognekommune) for the first time. 1021 in total, and their numbers increased over the years. So did the number of købstadskommuner (Singular Danish: Købstadskommune). The parish municipalities belonged to 24 counties (Danish: Amt) while the market towns were under direct control of the Ministry of Interior Affairs. Originally the municipalities held only small areas of responsibility. During the 20th century, they were granted responsibility for the hospital service for the non-urban population.

1958 Interior Minister Søren Olsen initiated the preparations which would eventually lead to the 1970 Municipal Reform. The number of municipalities peaked in 1965 with 1257 parish and 88 market city municipalities, including Copenhagen and Frederiksberg, in total 1345 municipalities.^[1] At the time of the reform the number of municipalities had already been reduced to 1,098.^[2]

Scope

The reform reduced the number of municipalities from 1,098 to 277 and the number of counties from 25 to 14. The concept of market towns was abandoned and after the reform Copenhagen and Frederiksberg were the only municipalities which did not belong to a county.

1974 adjustment

The reform was not fully implemented until 1 April 1974 when the number of municipalities was further reduced to 275.

• Store Magleby and Dragør parishes were merged into Dragør Municipality
• Sengeløse Municipality was merged into Høje-Taastrup Municipality

Later the municipalities on the island of Bornholm were also merged to form Bornholm Municipality.

References