Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Municipalities of Norway

Encyclopedia : M : MU : MUN : Municipalities of Norway



 

Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties (fylker, singular - fylke), and 431 municipalities/communes (kommuner). Oslo (the capital) is considered as both a county and a municipality.

Municipalities are the atomic unit of local government in Norway and are responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. Law enforcement and church services are provided at a national level in Norway. Municipalities do not collect taxes directly but are instead awarded block grants through the national budget.

Municipalities are undergoing continuous consolidation. In the beginning of the 1960s, there were 744 municipalities in Norway. At this writing there are 431, and there are plans for further mergers and political pressure to do so.

The consolidation effort is complicated by a number of factors. Since block grants are made by the national government to the municipalities based on an assessment of need, there is little incentive for the municipalities to lose local autonomy. The national policy is that municipalities should only merge voluntarily, and studies are underway to identify potential gains.

There are also an

and a list by municipality number. See also the list of former municipalities of Norway.

Norway's largest municipalities

With population as of January 1, 2006 (source: SSB[link])

  1. Oslo, 538.411
  2. Bergen, 242.158
  3. Trondheim, 158.613
  4. Stavanger, 115.157
  5. Bærum, 105.928
  6. Kristiansand, 76.917
  7. Fredrikstad, 70.791
  8. Tromsø, 63.596
  9. Sandnes, 58.947
  10. Drammen, 57.759
  11. Asker, 51.484
  12. Skien, 50.761
  13. Sarpsborg, 50.115
  14. Bodø, 44.992
  15. Skedsmo, 43.201
  16. Sandefjord, 41.555
  17. Larvik, 41.211
  18. Ålesund, 40.801
  19. Arendal, 39.826
  20. Karmøy, 37.928
  21. Tønsberg, 36.919
  22. Porsgrunn, 33.550
  23. Ringsaker, 31.923
  24. Haugesund, 31.738
  25. Lørenskog, 30.929

External links

 


From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.


Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: