Counties of Norway

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

Norway

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Norway

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Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties (singular Norwegian: fylke, plural Norwegian: fylker (Bokmål) / fylke (Nynorsk); until 1918 known as amt, pl. amter / amt). The counties form the primary first-level subdivisions of Norway and are further divided into 430 municipalities (kommune, pl. kommuner / kommunar). The capital Oslo is considered as both a county and a municipality.

There is some political disagreement on whether counties are a practical, economical or even necessary level of administration. See politics of Norway for more information.

List of counties

Below is a list of the Norwegian counties as they have been since 1919, with their current administrative centres. Note that the counties are administered both by appointees of the national government and to a lesser extent by their own elected bodies. The county numbers are from the official numbering system ISO 3166-2:NO, which follows the coastline from the Swedish border in the southeast to the Russian border in the northeast. The number 13 was dropped from the system when the city of Bergen (county no. 13) was merged into Hordaland (county no. 12) in 1972.

ISO-code	Arms	County (Fylke)	Administrative centre
01		Østfold	Sarpsborg
02		Akershus	Oslo
03		Oslo	City of Oslo
04		Hedmark	Hamar
05		Oppland	Lillehammer
06		Buskerud	Drammen
07		Vestfold	Tønsberg
08		Telemark	Skien
09		Aust-Agder	Arendal
10		Vest-Agder	Kristiansand
11		Rogaland	Stavanger
12		Hordaland	Bergen
13		Sogn og Fjordane	Leikanger
14		Møre og Romsdal	Molde
15		Sør-Trøndelag	Trondheim
16		Nord-Trøndelag	Steinkjer
17		Nordland	Bodø
18		Troms	Tromsø
19		Finnmark	Vadsø

Map

History

Fylke

From the consolidation to a single kingdom, Norway was divided into a number of geographic regions that 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 to 13th century

Counties (folkland) under the Borgarting, located in Viken with the seat at Sarpsborg:[1] Ranrike Vingulmork Vestfold Båhuslen Grenland Counties (first three fylke, last two bilandskap) under the Eidsivating, located in Oplandene with the seat at Eidsvoll:[1] Raumafylke Heinafylke Hadafylke Gudbrandsdal Østerdal Counties under the Gulating, located in Vestlandet with the seat at Gulen:[2] Sunnmærafylke Firdafylke Sygnafylke Valdres and Hallingdal Hordafylke Rygjafylke Setesdalen 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 Hebrides, Isle of Man, Iceland and Greenland were Norwegian skattland ("tax 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 various 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.^[3]

Elvesysle Ranrike 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

Orkdal Gauldal Strinda Herjedalen Jemtland Stjørdal Skogn Verdal 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 1536^[4]–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.^[5] 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.^[6]

Len in 1660

From 1660 Norway had nine principal len comprising 17 subsidiary len:

Akershus len Tunsberg len Bratsberg len Agdesiden len Stavanger len

Bergenhus len Trondheim len Nordlandene len Vardøhus 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.^[7]

Amt

With the royal decree of February 19, 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.^[8]

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 (grevskap) 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:^[9]

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

From 1919 each amt was renamed a fylke (plural fylker) (county) and the amtmann was now titled fylkesmann (county governor).

See also

• Ranked list of Norwegian counties
• Municipalities of Norway
• Regions of Norway
• Traditional districts of Norway
• Metropolitan regions of Norway
• Subdivisions of the Nordic countries
• Lists of County Governors of Norway

References

Footnotes

1. ^ ^{a b} "Lagting og lagsogn frem til 1797". Borgarting lagmannsrett. http://www.domstol.no/DAtemplates/Article.aspx?id=10162&epslanguage=NO. 
2. ^ "Frå lagting til allting". Gulatinget. http://www.gulatinget.no/Default.aspx?tabid=6304. 
3. ^ Danielsen (et al.), 1991, p. 77
4. ^ Christian III, king of Denmark-Norway, carried out the Protestant Reformation in Norway in 1536.
5. ^ Kavli, Guthorm (1987). Norges festninger. Universitetsforlaget. ISBN 82-00-18430-7. 
6. ^ Len on Norwegian Wiki site
7. ^ Jesperson, Leon (Ed.) (2000). A Revolution from Above? The Power State of 16th and 17th Century Scandinavia. Odense University Press. ISBN 87-7838-407-9. 
8. ^ Amt at Norwegian Wiki site
9. ^ Danielsen (et al.), 1991, p. 153

Bibliography

• Danielsen, Rolf; Dyrvik, Ståle; Grønlie, Tore; Helle, Knut; Hovland, Edgar (1991 (2007)). Grunntrekk i norsk historie (1 ed.). Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. ISBN 978-82-00-21273-7. 

External links

• Regionalization and devolution: Proposed new regions of Norway (powerpoint slide show)