Municipalities of Norway

Municipality in Norway is the name given to the lowest or local level of government. It is an area that accounts for its own political and administrative unit. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland them correspond to the (political) communities.

The parent of the municipalities are the provinces ( norw fylke ) and this the Norwegian state ( norw staten ).

Municipalities can ( bokmål norw skolekrets, nynorsk skulekrins ) be divided and school districts in several parishes ( nynorsk Sokn norw bokmål Sogn, ); these correspond in part to limitations of earlier communities.

Organization and tasks

The municipalities are headed by a committee named formannskap and a popularly elected municipal council ( norw kommunestyret ). All Norwegian municipalities on an equal footing. You are responsible for the primary and lower secondary education, the social institutions, the municipal road construction, water supply and waste water regulation and land use planning. They are financed by their own tax collection and from procurement of central funds.

Key data

From 1 January 2012 Norway is divided into 429 municipalities.

The size and population of the municipalities differ greatly. Of area, the largest municipality is Kautokeino in Finnmark with 9704 km ², is the smallest Kvitsøy in Rogaland with about 6 km ². The most populous municipality is Oslo with 621 332 (as of 1 January 2013); Utsira live in the least population, namely only 210

Local number

For statistical and other administrative purposes, each municipality has a unique local number. This is a four digit number. Their first two digits correspond to the two-digit number of the province to which the municipality belongs ( Fylkesnummer ). The last two digits indicate the number of the municipality within the province.

For instance, Bærum has the local number 0219, which means that it is the municipality in the province 19 02 ( Akershus ).

Usually to the municipalities, which consist of a city, and the lowest numbers in each province, such as Trondheim has the local number 1601. The remaining municipalities are numbered according to a topographic sequence. The number sequences have many gaps.

History

The term municipality for the smallest administrative unit in Norway was introduced in 1853 and replaced the 're from then existing administrative unit formannskapsdistrikt. The distinction between urban municipalities ( bykommune ) and rural communes ( herredskommune ) has been repealed by local law ( kommunelov ) of 25 September 1992. The terms city municipality and rural commune are still used in the Norwegian language, but have no formal significance.

Municipal elections

The last local elections were held on September 12, 2011:

See also: Fylkestingswahlen

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