The 15 counties of Norway are the first-level administrative divisions of Norway. The counties are further subdivided into 357 municipalities (). The island territories of Svalbard and Jan Mayen are outside the county divisions and they are ruled directly from the national level. The capital city of Oslo is both a county and a municipality.
In 2017, the Solberg government decided to abolish some of the counties and to merge them with other counties to form larger ones, reducing the number of counties from 19 to 11, which was implemented on 1 January 2020. This sparked popular opposition, with some calling for the reform to be reversed. The Storting voted to partly undo the reform on 14 June 2022, with Norway to have 15 counties from 1 January 2024. Three of the newly merged counties, namely Vestfold og Telemark, VikenLars Roede, "Viken og Innlandet: Amatørmessige logoer og uhistoriske navn", Aftenposten, 11 January 2020 and Troms og Finnmark, were dissolved and the old counties existing before the reform re-established with a few minor changes as some municipalities merged across former county borders and some switched counties during the 2020 local government reform ().
Name The counties in Norway are called (singular) and (plural). This name comes from the Old Norse word which means "district" or "county", but it is similar to the same root as "folk". It is similar in the minority languages in Norway: , , , . Prior to 1918, the counties were known as amt (singular) or amter (plural).
List of counties Below is a list of the Norwegian counties, with their current administrative centres. The counties are administered both by appointees of the national government and by their own elected bodies. The county numbers are from the official numbering system ISO 3166-2:NO, which originally was set up to follow the coastline from the Swedish border in the southeast to the Russian border in the northeast, but with the numbering has changed with county mergers.
The island territories of Svalbard and Jan Mayen lie outside of the county system of Norway. Svalbard is administered by the Governor of Svalbard, and Jan Mayen is administered by the County Governor of Nordland (but not part of Nordland).
County ISO-code Capital Most populous municipality Governor Mayor Area (km2) Pop. Electoral district(s) County governor agency Official language form Oslo NO-03 City of Oslo Oslo Ingvild Aleksandersen Anne Lindboe (H) 454.12 700,000 OsloØstfold, Buskerud, Oslo og Akershus Neutral NO-11 Stavanger Stavanger Bent Høie Marianne Chesak (Ap) 9,377.10 475,000 RogalandRogaland Neutral NO-15 Molde Ålesund Else-May Norderhus Jon Aasen (Ap) 14,355.62 270,000 Møre og RomsdalMøre og Romsdal Nynorsk NO-18 Bodø Bodø Tom Cato Karlsen Kari Anne Bøkestad Andreassen (Sp) 38,154.62 239,000 NordlandNordland NeutralNO-31 Sarpsborg Fredrikstad Ingvild Aleksandersen Sindre Martinsen-Evje (Ap) 4,180.7 299,647 ØstfoldØstfold, Buskerud, Oslo og Akershus NeutralNO-32OsloBærumIngvild AleksandersenThomas Sjøvold (H) 4,918.0 630,752 AkershusØstfold, Buskerud, Oslo og AkershusNeutralNO-33 Drammen DrammenIngvild AleksandersenTore Opdal Hansen (H) 14,908.0 284,955 BuskerudØstfold, Buskerud, Oslo og AkershusNeutral NO-34 Hamar Ringsaker Knut Storberget Even Aleksander Hagen (Ap) 52,072.44 375,000 HedmarkOpplandInnlandet Neutral VestfoldNO-39TønsbergSandefjordTrond RønningenAnne Strømøy (H) 2,167.7 253,555VestfoldVestfold og TelemarkBokmål TelemarkNO-40 Skien SkienTrond RønningenSven Tore Løkslid (Ap) 15,298.16 175,546 TelemarkVestfold og TelemarkNeutral NO-42 Kristiansand Kristiansand Gina Lund Arne Thomassen (H) 16,434.12 299,000 Aust-AgderVest-AgderAgder Neutral NO-46 Bergen Bergen Liv Signe Navarsete Jon Askeland (Sp) 33,870.99 632,000 HordalandSogn og FjordaneVestland Nynorsk Trööndelage NO-50 Steinkjer Trondheim Frank Jenssen Tomas Iver Hallem (Sp) 42,201.59 465,000 Nord-TrøndelagSør-TrøndelagTrøndelag NeutralNO-55 Tromsø TromsøElisabeth AspakerKristina Torbergsen (Ap) 26,189.43 168,340 TromsTroms og FinnmarkNeutralNO-56 Vadsø AltaElisabeth AspakerHans-Jacob Bønå (H) 48,637.43 75,540 FinnmarkTroms og FinnmarkNeutral
Responsibilities and significance Every county has two main organisations, both with underlying organisations. The county municipality () has a county council (), whose members are elected by the inhabitants. The county municipality is responsible mainly for some medium level schools, public transport organisation, regional road planning, culture, among other things. The county governor () is an authority directly overseen by the Norwegian government. It surveills the municipalities and receives complaints from people over their actions. It also controls areas where the government needs local direct ruling outside the municipalities.
History Fylke (1st period) From the consolidation to a single kingdom, Norway was divided into a number of geographic regions that each had its own legislative assembly or Thing, such as Gulating (Western Norway) and Frostating (Trøndelag). The second-order subdivision of these regions was into fylker, such as Egdafylke and Hordafylke. In 1914, the historical term fylke was brought into use again to replace the term amt introduced during the union with Denmark. Current day counties (fylker) often, but not necessarily, correspond to the historical areas.
Fylke in the 10th–13th centuries Counties (folkland) under the Borgarting, located in Viken with the seat at Sarpsborg:
Rånrike Vingulmark Vestfold Grenland
Counties (first three fylke, last two bilandskap) under the Eidsivating, located in Oplandene with the seat at Eidsvoll: Raumafylke (Glåmdalen, Romerike, Solør) Heinafylke (Gjøvik, Hedmarken) Hadafylke (Hadeland, Land, Toten) Gudbrandsdal Østerdal Counties under the Gulating, located in Vestlandet with the seat at Gulen Municipality:
Sunnmærafylke Firdafylke (Nordfjord, Sunnfjord) Sygnafylke Valdres and Hallingdal Hordafylke Rygjafylke Setesdal Egdafylke
Counties under the Frostating, located in Trøndelag with the seat at Frosta:
Eynafylke Sparbyggjafylke Verdælafylke Skeynafylke Orkdælafylke Gauldælafylke Stjordælafylke Strindafylke Naumdælafylke Nordmærafylke Romsdælafylke
Counties not attached to a thing:
Jamtaland Herjedalen Håløygjafylke Helgeland Salten Lofoten and Vesterålen Trondenes
Finnmark (including northern Troms), the Faroe Islands, the Orkney Islands, Shetland (the Shetland Islands), the Hebrides, the Isle of Man, Iceland and Greenland were Norwegian skattland ("taxed countries"), and did not belong to any known counties or assembly areas.
Syssel Syssel in 1300 From the end of the 12th century, Norway was divided into several syssel. The head of the syssel was the syslemann, who represented the king locally. The following shows a reconstruction of the different syssel in Norway c. 1300, including sub-syssel where these seem established.Danielsen (et al.), 1991, p. 77
Elvesysle Rånrike Borgarsysle (two parts) Romerike (two parts, "northern" and "southern") Hedmark (two parts, "northern" and "southern") Østerdalen "north of Åmot" "south of Åmot" Gudbrandsdalen "north of Ruste" "south of Ruste" Hadeland (later Ringerike, two parts, "northern" and "outer") Valdres and Hallingdal (two parts) Numedal and Telemark? Tverrdalane and Modum? Oslosysle (northern lut and western lut) Tønsbergsysle Skiensysle Eastern part (later Nedenes) Robyggjelag Agder Midtsysla Lista Rygjafylke "north of the fjord" "south of the fjord" Hordaland (Nordhordland? and Sunnhordland?) Hardanger Voss Sogn (two parts?) Sunnfjord Nordfjord Sunnmøre Romsdal Nordmøre? Nordmørafylke Orkdalen Gauldalen Strinda Herjedalen Jemtland Stjørdal Skogn Verdalen Sparbu Eynafylke Northern part? (later Fosen) Namdalen "upper half" (Overhalla) "lower half (later Njardøy) Hålogaland (two parts) Troms? Finnmark?
Len From 1308, the term len (plural len) in Norway signified an administrative region roughly equivalent to today's counties. The historic len was an important administrative entity during the period of Dano-Norwegian unification after their amalgamation as one state, which lasted for the period 1536Christian III, king of Denmark-Norway, carried out the Protestant Reformation in Norway in 1536.–1814.
At the beginning of the 16th century the political divisions were variable, but consistently included four main len and approximately 30 smaller sub-regions with varying connections to a main len. Up to 1660 the four principal len were headquartered at the major fortresses Bohus Fortress, Akershus Fortress, Bergenhus Fortress and the fortified city of Trondheim. The sub-regions corresponded to the church districts for the Lutheran church in Norway.
Len in 1536 Båhus len (later termed Bohuslän after Denmark-Norway ceded it to Sweden by the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658) Akershus len Trondheim len Bergenhus len (which included Northern Norway)
These four principal len were in the 1530s divided into approximately 30 smaller regions. From that point forward through the beginning of the 17th century the number of subsidiary len was reduced, while the composition of the principal len became more stable.
Len in 1660 From 1660 Norway had nine principal len comprising 17 subsidiary len:
Bergenhus len
Len written as län continues to be used as the administrative equivalent of county in Sweden to this day. Each len was governed by a lenman.
Amt With the royal decree of 19 February 1662, each len was designated an amt (plural amt) and the lenmann was titled amtmann, from German Amt (office), reflecting the bias of the Danish court of that period.
Amt in 1671 After 1671 Norway was divided into four principal amt or stiftsamt and there were nine subordinate amt:
Akershus amt Smålenene amt Brunla amt Agdesiden amt Bratsberg amt Stavanger amt Bergenhus amt Halsnøy klostergods Hardanger amt Nordlandene amt Trondheim amt Romsdalen amt Vardøhus amt
Amt in 1730 From 1730 Norway had the following amt:
Vardøhus amt Tromsø amt Nordlands amt Nordre Trondhjems amt Søndre Trondhjems amt Romsdalen amt Nordre Bergenhus amt Søndre Bergenhus amt Stavanger amt Lister og Mandals amt Nedenes amt Bratsberg amt Buskerud amt Oplandenes amt Hedemarkens amt Akershus amt Smaalenenes amt
At this time there were also two counties () controlled by actual counts, together forming what is now Vestfold county: Laurvigen county Jarlsberg county
Amt in 1760 In 1760 Norway had the following stiftamt and amt:Danielsen (et al.), 1991, p. 153
Akershus stiftamt Opplands amt Akershus amt Smålenenes amt Laurvigen county Jarlsberg county Bratsberg amt (eastern half) Agdesiden stiftamt Bratsberg amt (western half) Nedenes amt Lister and Mandal amt Stavanger amt Bergenhus stiftamt Romsdal amt (southern half) Trondheim stiftamt Romsdal amt (northern half) Nordlands amt Vardøhus amt
Fylke (2nd period)
From 1919 each amt was renamed a fylke (plural fylke(r)) (county) and the amtmann was now titled fylkesmann (county governor).
The county numbers are from the official numbering system ISO 3166-2:NO, which originally was set up to follow the coastline from the Swedish border in the southeast to the Russian border in the northeast, but the numbering has changed with county mergers. The number 13, 16 and 17 were dropped, and the number 50 was added to account for changes over the years. The lack of a county number 13 is due to the city of Bergen no longer being its own county, and is unrelated to fear of the number 13.
In 2018, Sør-Trøndelag was merged with Nord-Trøndelag into the new county of Trøndelag, and several followed.