Counties of Denmark

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

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See also Politics of the Faroe Islands Politics of Greenland EU Politics
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Denmark was until December 31, 2006 divided into 13 counties (Danish: amter), and 270 municipalities (kommuner). On January 1, 2007, the counties were replaced by five Regions and the number of municipalities slashed to 98.

Map of Denmark showing the former counties

Copenhagen County comprised all the municipalities of metropolitan Copenhagen, except Copenhagen Municipality and Frederiksberg Municipality.

Bornholm was originally divided in five municipalities and a county comprising the entire island. These six administrations merged on January 1, 2003 forming the new Bornholm Regional Municipality, giving it a status resembling the municipalities of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg. On January 1, 2007, these three municipalities lost their special status and their responsibilities and powers have been reduced to the same level as the 95 other municipalities.

Greenland and the Faroe Islands are also part of the Kingdom of Denmark, but both enjoy internal autonomy. Both are largely self-governing, and each community sends two members to the Danish Parliament. The Faroe Islands obtained self-government in 1948; previously the islands had the status of a Danish amt.

See also the ranked list of Danish counties.

1 Reform
2 List of counties (1970-2006)
3 See also
4 External links

A government proposal in 2004 called for the counties to be replaced by five large regions with health care as their sole responsibilities; two regions in Jutland, two regions in Zealand and one region covering Funen and the southernmost part of Jutland. The proposal also required the municipalities to merge reducing them from 271 to about 100, with a minimum of 20,000 inhabitants in each municipality, although some exceptions were made to this rule.

The reform was confirmed by the Danish Parliament on February 24, 2005, and the counties were abolished on January 1, 2007.

Key		Capital	Status	Population	Area (km²)	Pop. density (per km²)
1	Copenhagen	Copenhagen	Municipality	501,158	91.3	5,489.1
2	Frederiksberg	Frederiksberg	Municipality	91,855	8.7	10,560.5
3	Copenhagen	Glostrup	County	618,529	526	1,175.9
4	Frederiksborg	Hillerød	County	378,686	1,347	281.1
5	Roskilde	Roskilde	County	241,523	891	271
6	West Zealand	Sorø	County	307,207	2,984	103
7	Storstrøm	Næstved	County	262,781	3,398	77.3
8	Funen	Odense	County	478,347	3,485	137.2
9	South Jutland	Aabenraa	County	252,433	3,939	64.1
10	Ribe	Ribe	County	224,261	3,132	71.6
11	Vejle	Vejle	County	360,921	2,997	120.4
12	Ringkjøbing	Ringkøbing	County	275,065	4,854	56.7
13	Viborg	Viborg	County	234,896	4,122	57
14	North Jutland	Ålborg	County	495,090	6,173	80.2
15	Århus	Århus	County	661,370	4,561	145
16	Bornholm	Rønne	Regional municipality	43,245	587	73.6
—	Denmark	Copenhagen	Entire country	5,427,459	43,093	125.9