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Regions of Denmark
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Regions of Denmark were created on 1 January 2007 as part of the 2007 Danish Municipal Reform which created five new administrative units to replace the country's traditional thirteen counties (amter). At the same time, smaller municipalities (kommuner) were merged into larger units, cutting the number of municipalities from 270 to 98. The reform was made effective on 1 January 2007. The most important area of responsibility for the new regions is the national health service. Each regional council consists of 41 members giving a total of 205 Council Members (2006).
The reform has been called the biggest reform in thirty years, and an important policy issue for the current Liberal-Conservative Danish cabinet, most importantly for Lars Løkke Rasmussen, minister of the Interior and Health. The abolition of the counties had long been an important goal for both the Conservatives and the Danish People's Party. In June 2004, the Danish People's Party decided to back the reform, thus securing a majority in the Danish parliament (Folketing), although the party had preferred just abolishing the counties without replacing them with a new third administrative level (the other two being the government and the municipalities). The parties who wanted to limit the "power" of or abolish the second tier of government altogether, prevailed insofar as the regions have no authority to levy any taxes, unlike the former counties. The Regions are funded mainly by the central government (around 70%), with some financing (around 30%) coming from the municipalities. A central government "Health Contribution" tax (Sundhedsbidrag) at 8.00% on the preliminary and final income statement forms will replace the "County" (Amt) tax.
| Region | Capital | Population | Area (km²) | Pop. density (per km²) |
Corresponding counties (1970-2006) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hovedstaden | Hillerød | 1,636,749 | 2,561 | 639.1 | Copenhagen County and Frederiksborg, and the municipalities of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg and Bornholm |
| Midtjylland | Viborg | 1,227,428 | 13,053 | 94.0 | Ringkjøbing, nearly all of Århus, the southern part of Viborg and the northern part of Vejle |
| Nordjylland | Aalborg | 576,972 | 8,020 | 71.9 | North Jutland, the northern part of Viborg County and a small part of Århus County |
| Sjælland | Sorø | 816,118 | 7,273 | 112.2 | Roskilde, Storstrøm, and Vestsjælland |
| Syddanmark | Vejle | 1,189,817 | 12,191 | 97.5 | Fyn, Ribe, Sønderjylland and the southern half of Vejle County |
| Denmark | Copenhagen | 5,447,084 | 43,093 | 126.4 | Entire country |
- Explanation of and background to Municipal Reform - with links to the Danish Ministry of the Interior and Health (in English)
- The agreement about the Municipal Reform - from the Danish Ministry of the Interior and Health (in Danish)
- Regionalization and devolution: Proposed new regions of Norway (powerpoint slide show)
- Statistics Denmark
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