Municipalities of the Faroe Islands

The Faroe Islands are administratively divided in 34 municipalities ("kommunur") with about 120 cities and villages. Until December 31, 2004, there were 48 municipalities. In the following years the number of Faroese municipalities is expected to drop to somewhere between 7 and 15, as there is currently a rationale towards municipal amalgamation and a decentralization of public services. In 1998 it was foreseen that no municipality should inhabit less than 2.000 citizens, but whether this will be true is a political question. The Faroese government has furhermore decided not to conduct forced (top-down) amalgamation, but to leave the process to the "free will" of the municipalities. In many lesser municipalities there is some anguish connected to the amalgamation-process, which hampers the process, and in turn is creating two kinds of municipalities: Greater municipalities (town-municipalities), that are eager to attract smaller municipalities in the amalgamation process, and lesser municipalities that are either trying to avoid amalgamation or seek to amalgamate with other lesser municipalities. The geographically huge Sunda kommuna is an examle of this. The greater municipalities are organized in Kommunusamskipan Føroya (KFS) and the lesser are organized in Føroya Kommunufelag (FKF).

34 municipalities (since 2005)

As of January 1, 2005, there are 34 municipalities:

48 municipalities (until 2004)

Sorted by population (state: December 31, 2002).

Notes

[http://www.hagstova.fo/ Hagstova Føroya] - informations from 2007.
Tórshavn is both the capital of the Streymoy region and its own region, the latter being identical with Tórshavnar kommuna, but not including the area of the former Kollafjarðar kommuna.
Klaksvík both capital of the Norðoyggjar region as well of its own region, which constitute of the two municipalities Klaksvík and Hvannasund.

Source

* [http://www.hagstova.fo/Hagtol/Arbok/Arbok_03/t_15_01.pdf Hagstova Føroya - Municipalities by size and width, population growth and density, age and sex - December 31, 2002] (in PDF)

See also

* List of towns in the Faroe Islands
* Regions of the Faroe Islands
* List of islands of the Faroe Islands
* Subdivisions of "Norden"
* Politics of the Faroe Islands

Other Faroe topics

External links