Counties of Norway

Name

The counties in Norway are called fylke (singular) and fylker (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.

1. 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.
2. 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 Municipality:
• 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 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 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, 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.

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

References

1. (21 February 2017). "Dette er Norges nye regioner".
2. (5 July 2022). "Fylkesinndelingen fra 2024".
3. Lilleås, Heidi Schei. (October 2019). "Monica Mæland om Viken-dramaet: Vil ikke spekulere".
4. [[Lars Roede]], "[https://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/kronikk/i/Jo2a37/viken-og-innlandet-amatoermessige-logoer-og-uhistoriske-navn-lars-roede Viken og Innlandet: Amatørmessige logoer og uhistoriske navn]", ''Aftenposten'', 11 January 2020
5. Grønning, Trygve. (2021-03-17). "Fylkesrådslederen om sammenslåingen: – Staten har påført oss dype sår".
6. "Lagting og lagsogn frem til 1797".
7. "Frå lagting til allting".
8. Danielsen (et al.), 1991, p. 77
9. [[Christian III of Denmark. Christian III]], king of Denmark-Norway, carried out the [[Protestant Reformation]] in Norway in 1536.
10. Kavli, Guthorm. (1987). "Norges festninger". Universitetsforlaget.
11. (2000). "A Revolution from Above? The Power State of 16th and 17th Century Scandinavia". Odense University Press.
12. Danielsen (et al.), 1991, p. 153
13. moderniseringsdepartementet, Kommunal- og. (7 July 2017). "Regionreform".