- Counties of Lithuania
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Lithuania 
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The territory of Lithuania is divided into 10 counties (Lithuanian: singular apskritis, plural apskritys), all named after their capitals. The counties are divided into 60 municipalities (Lithuanian: singular savivaldybė, plural savivaldybės): 9 city municipalities, 43 district municipalities and 8 municipalities. Each municipality is then divided into elderates (Lithuanian: singular seniūnija, plural seniūnijos). This division was created in 1994 and slightly modified in 2000.
Counties are administered by county governors (Lithuanian: singular – apskrities viršininkas, plural – apskrities viršininkai) who are appointed by the central government in Vilnius. Their primary duty is to ensure that the municipalities obey the laws and the Constitution of Lithuania. They do not have great powers vested in them, and so it is suggested that 10 counties are too much for Lithuania as the two smallest counties administer only four municipalities. There is a proposal to replace the counties with four or five lands, a new administrative unit, that would be decided according to the ethnographic regions of Lithuania and based on the 5 major cities with the population more than 100,000. On 1 July 2010, the county administrations were abolished[1], and since that date, counties remains as the territorial and statistical units.
Modern apskritys should not be confused with apskritys that existed in the independent Lithuania during the interwar period. At that time Lithuania had a two-step administrative division: apskritys that were subdivided into valsčius. Lithuania now has a three-step division: counties, municipalities, and elderates (apkritys, savivaldybės, and seniūnijos). See subdivisions of Lithuania for details.
Map
This map shows counties as well as municipalities. Eight city municipalities and two municipalities are marked by numbers:
1 – Vilnius city municipality
2 – Kaunas city municipality
3 – Klaipėda city municipality4 – Panevėžys city municipality
5 – Šiauliai city municipality
6 – Alytus city municipality7 – Birštonas municipality
8 – Palanga city municipality
9 – Visaginas city municipality
10 – Neringa municipality
List
# County
(media help)Capital Area
in km² (rank)Population
in 2001 (census)[2]Population
in 2008 (rank)[3]Population
per km² (rank)[3]Municipalities 1 Alytus County
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Alytus 5,425 (6) 187,769 177,040 (7) 32.6 (8) - Alytus city municipality
- Alytus district municipality
- Druskininkai municipality
- Lazdijai district municipality
- Varėna district municipality
2 Kaunas County
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Kaunas 8,089 (3) 701,529 673,706 (2) 83.3 (2) 3 Klaipėda County
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Klaipėda 5,209 (7) 385,768 378,843 (3) 72.7 (3) - Klaipėda city municipality
- Klaipėda district municipality
- Kretinga district municipality
- Neringa municipality
- Palanga city municipality
- Skuodas district municipality
- Šilutė district municipality
4 Marijampolė County
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Marijampolė 4,463 (8) 188,634 181,219 (6) 40.6 (5) 5 Panevėžys County
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Panevėžys 7,881 (4) 299,990 284,235 (5) 36.1 (7) 6 Šiauliai County
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Šiauliai 8,540 (2) 370,096 349,876 (4) 41.0 (4) 7 Tauragė County
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Tauragė 4,411 (9) 134,275 127,378 (10) 28.9 (9) 8 Telšiai County
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Telšiai 4,350 (10) 179,885 173,383 (8) 39.9 (6) 9 Utena County
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Utena 7,201 (5) 185,962 172,580 (9) 24.0 (10) 10 Vilnius County
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Vilnius 9,729 (1) 850,064 848,097 (1) 87.2 (1) See also
- Subdivisions of Lithuania
- Municipalities of Lithuania
- Elderships of Lithuania
- ISO 3166-2:LT
References
- ^ "Dėl apskričių viršininkų administracijų likvidavimo". Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania. http://www3.lrs.lt/pls/inter3/dokpaieska.showdoc_l?p_id=392936. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
- ^ "Number of population by county, city (town) and municipality". Department of Statistics to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. 2005-12-01. http://www.stat.gov.lt/en/pages/view/?id=1712. Retrieved 2008-07-30.
- ^ a b "M3010211: >>>Total area and population by administrative territory". Department of Statistics to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. http://db1.stat.gov.lt/statbank/SelectVarVal/Define.asp?Maintable=M3010211&PLanguage=1. Retrieved 2008-07-30.
Counties of Lithuania First-level administrative divisions in Europe Sovereign
statesAlbania · Andorra · Armenia2 · Austria · Azerbaijan3 · Belarus · Belgium · Bosnia and Herzegovina · Bulgaria · Croatia · Cyprus2 · Czech Republic · Denmark · Estonia · Finland · France1 · Georgia3 · Germany · Greece · Hungary · Iceland · Ireland · Italy · Kazakhstan2 · Latvia · Liechtenstein · Lithuania · Luxembourg · Republic of Macedonia · Malta · Moldova · Monaco · Montenegro · Netherlands · Norway · Poland · Portugal · Romania · Russia1 · San Marino · Serbia · Slovakia · Slovenia · Spain · Sweden · Switzerland · Turkey1 · Ukraine · United Kingdom
States with limited
recognitionAbkhazia3 · Kosovo · Northern Cyprus2 · South Ossetia3
1 Has part of its territory outside Europe. 2 Considered European for cultural, political and historical reasons but is geographically in West Asia. 3 Partially or entirely in Asia, depending on the definition of the border.Table of administrative country subdivisions by country Categories:- Counties of Lithuania
- Subdivisions of Lithuania
- Lists of country subdivisions
- Country subdivisions of Europe
- First-level administrative country subdivisions
- Lithuania-related lists
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