The 1970 Danish Municipal Reform was an extensive administrative reform in

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

which on 1 April 1970 reduced the number of Danish municipalities from 1,098 to 277 and the number of

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

from 25 to 14. The reform also abolished the last legal privileges of the

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

s ( sing. Danish: ''købstad''). The 1970 reform was followed by another municipal reform in 2007, namely the Structure Reform. This reform would further reduce the number of municipalities in Denmark, and replace the counties with

regions In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

History

In 1841, a law provided for the establishment of 1,021 parish municipalities (sing. Danish: ''sognekommune'') for the first time, and their numbers increased over the years, as did the number of ''købstadskommuner'' (sing. Danish: ''købstadskommune''). The parish municipalities belonged to 24 counties while the market towns were under direct control of the

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministr ...

. Originally the municipalities held only small areas of responsibility. During the 20th century, they were granted responsibility for the hospital service for the non-urban population. In 1958, interior minister

Søren Olesen Søren Olesen (27 September 1891– 29 August 1973) was a Danish teacher and politician. He was the minister of interior between 1957 and 1960. Biography Olesen was born in Giver, Aalborg, on 27 September 1891. He received a degree in teaching i ...

( da) began what would eventually lead to the 1970 Municipal Reform. The number of municipalities peaked in 1965 at 1,345: there were 1,257 parish and 88 market town municipalities, with Copenhagen and Frederiksberg included in the latter total. At the time of the reform the number of municipalities had already been reduced to 1,098.

Scope

Throughout the 16 years of gradually cutting the number of municipalities, they were reduced from well over 1,000 to 275. The number of counties was reduced from 25 to 14. The concept of market towns was abandoned, with

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

and

Frederiksberg Frederiksberg () is a part of the Capital Region of Denmark. It is formally an independent municipality, Frederiksberg Municipality, separate from Copenhagen Municipality, but both are a part of the City of Copenhagen. It occupies an area of ...

being the only municipalities not part of a county after the reform.

1974 adjustment

The last bits of the reform were not fully implemented until 1 April 1974 when the number of municipalities was further reduced to 275. * Store Magleby and Dragør parishes were merged to become

Dragør Municipality Dragør Kommune () is a municipality ( Danish, '' kommune'') in Region Hovedstaden on the southern coast of the island of Amager just east of Zealand (''Sjælland'') in eastern Denmark. The municipality covers an area of 18.41 km² (2013) ...

* Sengeløse Municipality was merged into

Høje-Taastrup Municipality Høje-Taastrup Kommune is a municipality ( Danish, '' kommune'') in Region Hovedstaden on the island of Zealand (''Sjælland'') in eastern Denmark. The municipality covers an area of 78 km² (30 mi²), and has a total population of 50,6 ...

References

{{reflist 1970 in Denmark Government of Denmark Reform in Denmark

History

Scope

1974 adjustment

See also

References