Counties of Denmark

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Denmark

Image:Denmark coa2.svg This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Denmark

Constitution The Crown: Margrethe II Council of State Government Former governments Prime Minister (list) Anders Fogh Rasmussen Parliament Speaker: Thor Pedersen Elections: 2001 · 2005 · 2007 Local government Regions Municipalities Former subdivisions Counties Political parties Foreign relations See also Politics of the Faroe Islands Politics of Greenland EU Politics

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Denmark was until December 31, 2006 divided into 13 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.

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 1 Reform 2 List of counties (1970-2006) 3 See also 4 External links

[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)
Image:Copenhagen coa.jpg	Copenhagen (City)	Copenhagen	Municipality	501,158	91.3	5,489.1
Image:DenmarkFrederiksbergSeal.png	Frederiksberg (City)	Frederiksberg	Municipality	91,855	8.7	10,560.5
Image:Københavns amt coa.png	Copenhagen County	Glostrup	County	618,529	526	1,175.9
Image:Frederiksborg amt coa.png	Frederiksborg County	Hillerød	County	378,686	1,347	281.1
Image:Roskilde amt coa.png	Roskilde County	Roskilde	County	241,523	891	271
Image:Vestsjællands amt coa.png	West Zealand County	Sorø	County	307,207	2,984	103
Image:Storstrøms amt coa.png	Storstrøm County	Næstved	County	262,781	3,398	77.3
Image:Fyns amt coa.png	Funen County	Odense	County	478,347	3,485	137.2
Image:Sønderjyllands amt coa.png	South Jutland County	Aabenraa	County	252,433	3,939	64.1
Image:Ribe amt coa.png	Ribe County	Ribe	County	224,261	3,132	71.6
Image:Vejle amt coa.png	Vejle County	Vejle	County	360,921	2,997	120.4
Image:Ringkjøbing amt coa.png	Ringkjøbing County	Ringkøbing	County	275,065	4,854	56.7
Image:Viborg amt coa.png	Viborg County	Viborg	County	234,896	4,122	57
Image:Nordjyllands amt coa.png	North Jutland County	Ålborg	County	495,090	6,173	80.2
Image:Århus amt coa.png	Aarhus County	Århus	County	661,370	4,561	145
Image:Bornholms regionskommune coa.png	Bornholm	Rønne	Regional municipality	43,245	587	73.6
Image:Denmark coa2.svg	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

• ISO 3166-2:DK

[edit] External links

• Statistics Denmark
• Map of Denmark
• Explanation of Municipal Reform
• Map with named (new) municipalities
• Map of Faroe Islands
• Map of Greenlandcs:Administrativní členění Dánska

da:Danmarks amter de:Verwaltungsgliederung Dänemarks es:Organización territorial de Dinamarca fr:Amter du Danemark lt:Danijos amtai nl:Provincies van Denemarken nds-nl:Provinzies van Denmaark ja:デンマークの県 no:Danmarks amter nn:Amt i Danmark nds:Amtsrebeden vun Däänmark pl:Podział administracyjny Danii 1970-2006 pt:Subdivisões da Dinamarca sv:Danmarks amter