The 12 cantons ( ; ; ) of the

Grand Duchy of Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembourg ...

are subdivisions at the first level of

local administrative unit Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics or NUTS () is a geocode standardization, standard for referencing the administrative divisions of country, countries for statistical purposes. The standard, adopted in 2003, is developed and reg ...

(LAU-1) in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics or NUTS () is a geocode standard for referencing the administrative divisions of countries for statistical purposes. The standard, adopted in 2003, is developed and regulated by the European ...

for

Eurostat Eurostat ("European Statistical Office"; also DG ESTAT) is a department of the European Commission ( Directorate-General), located in the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statist ...

purposes. They were subdivisions of the three districts of Luxembourg until 2015, when the district level of government was abolished. The cantons are in turn subdivided into 100 communes (i.e. municipalities).

Function

Unlike in Switzerland and similarly to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, Luxembourgish cantons have no administrative structure of their own—rather, they are used to delimitate electoral constituencies and judicial districts. Until 2015, they also served to delimitate Luxembourg's three districts.

History

The origins of the cantons of Luxembourg lie in the decree of 31 August 1795 by the

Committee of Public Safety The Committee of Public Safety () was a committee of the National Convention which formed the provisional government and war cabinet during the Reign of Terror, a violent phase of the French Revolution. Supplementing the Committee of General D ...

during the French Revolutionary period. This established 37 cantons in the Département des Forêts, grouped into 4 ''arrondissements'' (districts): Bitbourg, Diekirch, Luxembourg, and Neufchâteau. The old feudal territorial divisions were replaced with a system of uniform administrative division into cantons of approximately equal size and population. The decree of 6 March 1802 reduced the number of cantons in the department to 28. This situation lasted until 1815, when the Congress of Vienna re-organised Europe's borders. The Duchy of Luxembourg lost its territories east of the Our, the Sauer and the Moselle rivers to Prussia. The subsequent administrative reorganisation divided Luxembourg into 32 cantons, grouped into five arrondissements: Marche, Saint-Hubert, Neufchâteau, Diekirch, and Luxembourg. By royal decree of 2 January 1832, ''arrondissements'' were reduced in size, but their number increased from 5 to 8. They were now named quarters, and later, districts.

List

The following list gives the names of the cantons in French and Luxembourgish (in that order) which are both official languages of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg:

Maps

Notes

References

External links

* Subdivisions of Luxembourg Luxembourg 2 Cantons, Luxembourg Cantons de:Kantone im Großherzogtum Luxemburg nl:Kantons van Luxemburg {{Luxembourg-stub