Administrative divisions of Norway

Norway's elongated shape, numerous geographical barriers, and distributed population barriers has led to a number of conventions for its subdivisions. These have changed somewhat over time, and various reforms are under continuous consideration.

Formal subdivisions

The political administration of Norway takes place at three levels:

• Kingdom, covering all of metropolitan Norway including its integral overseas areas of Svalbard and Jan Mayen. Whereas Svalbard is subject to an international treaty with some limits to Norwegian sovereignty, Jan Mayen shares county governor (fylkesmann) with Nordland county.
• Counties, known in Norwegian as fylker (singular fylke), of which there are 19. These derive in part from divisions that preceded Norway's constitution in 1814 and independence in 1905. The counties also function as constituencies during elections for Parliament.
• Municipalities, known in Norwegian as kommuner (singular kommune) of which there are 430.^[1] In addition the Longyearbyen local authority has some similarieties with a municipality.
• External dependencies

As infrastructure for travel and communication has improved over the years, the benefits of consolidation are under ongoing discussion. The number of municipalities has decreased from 744 in the early 1960s to today's number, and more mergers are planned. Similarly, the political responsibilities of the counties has been decreased, and there was talk of combining them into 5–9 regions by 2010. These plans were, however, recently abandoned.

Within the government administration, there are a few exceptions to the county subdivision:

• The Norwegian court system is divided into six appellate districts.
• The state Church of Norway is divided into eleven dioceses.
• The 13 constituencies for elections to the Sámi Parliament of Norway, which is a part of the Norwegian state apparatus, do not follow the county borders - sometimes encompassing several counties. They do, however, follow municipality borders.

County

County municipality

A geopolitical map of Norway, exhibiting its 19 first-order subnational divisions (fylker or "counties") with Svalbard and Jan Mayen

A county municipality (Norwegian: Fylkeskommune) is the public elected body that is responsible for certain public administrative and service tasks within a county. Each county is governed as a county municipality, with the exception of Oslo, which is both a municipality and a county municipality. The main responsibility of the county municipalities are upper secondary schools, dental care, public transport, county roads, culture, cultural heritage management, land use planning and business development.

The main body of each county municipality is the county council (fylkesting), elected by direct election by all legal residents every fourth year. The county councils typically have 30-50 members and meet about six times a year. They are divided into standing committees and an executive board (fylkesutvalg), that meet considerably more often. Both the council and executive board are led by the Chairman of the County Council or County Mayor (fylkesordfører).

The national government, formally the King, is represented in each county by a county governor (Norwegian: Fylkesmann). This office mainly function as a supervising authority over the county and municipality administrations and their decisions can be appealed to him.

Municipality

Municipalities are the atomic unit of local government and are responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, some social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. Law enforcement and church services are provided at a national level in Norway. The main body of each municipality is the municipality council (kommunestyre), elected by direct election by all legal residents every fourth year.

Borough

Three municipalities, Oslo, Bergen and Stavanger, are divided into boroughs. In Oslo and Stavanger, they elect their own political council. They are part of the municipal organization, but have a certain amount of influence in issues regarding health, education and naming.

Integral territories

Both Svalbard and Jan Mayen are "part of the Kingdom of Norway", although they are not allocated to a particular county and have not been declared as dependencies.^[2]

Dependencies

Norway has three dependent territories (Norwegian: biland), all uninhabited and located in the Southern Hemisphere. Bouvet Island is a Subantarctic island in the South Atlantic Ocean.^[3] Queen Maud Land is a sector of Antarctica which spans between 20° west and 45° east.^[4] Peter I Island is a volcanic island located 450 kilometres (280 mi) off the coast of Ellsworth Land of continental Antarctica.^[5] Both Peter I Island and Queen Maud Land are south of 60°S and are thus part of the Antarctic Treaty System. While the treaty states that the claims are not affected by the treaty, only the other countries with claims recognize Norwegian sovereignty on the island.^[6] The dependencies are administration by the Polar Affairs Department of the Ministry of Justice and the Police in Oslo.^[7] Norwegian criminal law, private law and procedural law applies to the dependencies, in addition to other laws that explicitly state they are valid on the island.^[8]

Informal subdivisions

Municipalities and counties of Norway

Regions

Norway is generally divided into five regions (Norwegian: landsdel), which largely represent areas with a common language and culture: Northern Norway, Trøndelag, Western Norway, Southern Norway and Eastern Norway. Regions hold no official status in the government, but is used for organizing some public organizations, including the Norwegian Public Roads Administration and the regional health authorities. Central Norway is a region which consists of Trøndelag and Møre og Romsdal. Trøndelag and Northern Norway is collectively known as Nordenfjells. Sápmi is an area which spans into Sweden, Finland and Russia and is defined as the "homeland" of the Sami. The Norwegian Meteorological Institute uses different regions, corresponding to the weather patterns.

List of regions

Region	Counties
Northern Norway	Nordland, Troms, Finnmark
Trøndelag	Nord-Trøndelag, Sør-Trøndelag
Western Norway	Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Hordaland, Rogaland
Southern Norway	Aust-Agder, Vest-Agder
Eastern Norway	Oslo, Akershus, Østfold, Vestfold, Telemark, Buskerud, Oppland, Hedmark

Districts

Districts (Norwegian: distrikt) represent an unofficial area organized by common language, culture or geographical barriers. Their boundaries are subjective and some areas may be regarded as belonging to multiple districts. Districts are larger than municipalities and smaller than counties, although some districts may span across county borders. Some districts form a hierarchy where a district can be subdivided into multiple lesser districts.

Settlements and rural areas

Statistics Norway operates with the term settlement for any collection of at least 200 people who live close to another. Outside of these there may be rural areas which have an unofficial border. Sometimes these are defined by school districts. Cities are often divided into boroughs, which may or may not have

History

Municipal independence was established in 1838. The introduction of self-government in rural districts was a major political change. The Norwegian farm culture (bondekultur) that emerged came to serve as a symbol of national resistance to the forced union with Sweden. The legislation of 1837 gave both the towns and the rural areas the same institutions: a minor change for the town, but a major advance for the rural communities.

The composition and amount of municipalities and their function and the existence and function of the counties are being continuously debated. However, there are currently no plans for reform.

See also

• ISO 3166-2 codes of Norway
• FIPS region codes of Norway (standard withdrawn in 2008)
• NUTS of Norway
• Subdivisions of the Nordic countries
• List of possessions of Norway

References

1. "Kristiansund + Frei = Sant" (in Norwegian). www.ks.no. Archived from the original on 20 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-09.
2. Arlov, Thor B. (1994). A short history of Svalbard. Oslo: Norwegian Polar Institute. p. 68. ISBN 82-90307-55-1.
3. "Svalbard". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. 11 April 2012. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
4. "Dronning Maud Land" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Polar Institute. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
5. "Peter I Øy". Norwegian Climate and Pollution Agency. Archived from the original on 29 August 2011. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
6. "The Antarctic Treaty". Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty. Archived from the original on 29 August 2011. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
7. "Polar Affairs Department". Norwegian Ministry of the Environment. Archived from the original on 29 August 2011. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
8. "Lov om Bouvet-øya, Peter I's øy og Dronning Maud Land m.m. (bilandsloven)" (in Norwegian). Lovdata. Archived from the original on 29 August 2011. Retrieved 29 August 2011.