Fylke

There are 15 counties in Norway. The 15 counties are administrative regions that 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, Viken Lars 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).

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:

*'' 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.

*'' 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 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 Nord-Norge, 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'':

*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 Triskaidekaphobia, fear of the number 13.

In 2018, Sør-Trøndelag was merged with Nord-Trøndelag into the new county of Trøndelag, and several followed.

''Fylke'' (3rd period)

In 2017, the Norwegian government announced the merge of the existing 19 fylker into 11 new fylker by 2020. As a result, several government responsibilities were transferred to the new regions.

; New counties
*Troms og Finnmark, by merging Finnmark and Troms counties in 2020. Disestablished in 2023, split into Finnmark and Troms counties.
*Nordland, no change, same as Nordland county.
*Trøndelag, by merging Nord-Trøndelag and Sør-Trøndelag counties in 2018.
*Møre og Romsdal, no change, same as Møre og Romsdal county.
*Vestland, by merging Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane counties in 2020.
*Rogaland, no change, same as Rogaland county.
*Agder, by merging Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder counties in 2020.
*Vestfold og Telemark, by merging Telemark and Vestfold counties in 2020. Disestablished in 2023, split into Telemark and Vestfold counties.
*Innlandet, by merging Hedmark and Oppland counties in 2020.
*Viken (Norwegian county), Viken, by merging Akershus, Buskerud, and Østfold counties in 2020. Disestablished in 2023, split into Akershus, Buskerud, and Østfold counties.
*Oslo, no change, same as Oslo county.

See also

*Municipalities of Norway
*Regions of Norway
*Districts of Norway, Traditional districts of Norway
*Metropolitan regions of Norway
*Subdivisions of the Nordic countries
*Lists of County Governors of Norway

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Counties Of Norway
Counties of Norway,
Subdivisions of Norway
Lists of subdivisions of Norway, Counties
Administrative divisions in Europe, Norway 1
First-level administrative divisions by country, Counties, Norway
21st-century disestablishments in Norway