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Będzin County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (
) in
Silesian Voivodeship
Silesian Voivodeship ( ) is an administrative province in southern Poland. With over 4.2 million residents and an area of 12,300 square kilometers, it is the second-most populous, and the most-densely populated and most-urbanized region of Poland ...
, southern
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
. It came into being on 1 January 1999 as a result of the
Polish local government reforms
The administrative division of Poland since 1999 has been based on three levels of subdivision. The territory of Poland is divided into ''voivodeships'' (provinces); these are further divided into ''powiats'' (counties or districts), and these i ...
passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and largest town is
Będzin, which lies north-east of the regional capital
Katowice
Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...
. The county contains four other towns:
Czeladź, west of Będzin,
Wojkowice, north-west of Będzin,
Sławków, east of Będzin, and
Siewierz, north-east of Będzin.
The town of Sławków, which became part of Będzin County in 2002 when it was transferred from
Lesser Poland Voivodeship
Lesser Poland Voivodeship ( ) is a voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship in southern Poland. It has an area of , and a population of 3,404,863 (2019). Its capital and largest city is Kraków.
The province's name recalls the traditional name of a h ...
to Silesian Voivodeship, forms an
exclave
An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is s ...
. It is separated from the rest of the county by the cities of
Dąbrowa Górnicza
Dąbrowa Górnicza () is a city in Zagłębie Dąbrowskie, southern Poland, near Katowice and Sosnowiec. It is located in eastern part of the Silesian Voivodeship, on the Czarna Przemsza and Biała Przemsza rivers (tributaries of the Vistula Rive ...
and
Sosnowiec.
The county covers an area of . As of 2019 its total population is 148,516. The most populated towns are Będzin with 56,624 inhabitants, Czeladź with 31,545 inhabitants and Wojkowice with 8,927 inhabitants.
Neighbouring counties
Będzin County is bordered by
Myszków County to the north,
Zawiercie County to the north-east, the city of
Dąbrowa Górnicza
Dąbrowa Górnicza () is a city in Zagłębie Dąbrowskie, southern Poland, near Katowice and Sosnowiec. It is located in eastern part of the Silesian Voivodeship, on the Czarna Przemsza and Biała Przemsza rivers (tributaries of the Vistula Rive ...
and (through Sławków)
Olkusz County to the east, the city of
Sosnowiec to the south, the cities of
Siemianowice Śląskie and
Piekary Śląskie to the west, and
Tarnowskie Góry County to the north-west.
Administrative division
The county is subdivided into eight
gmina
The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' ) is the basic unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,479 gminy throughout the country, encompassing over 43,000 villages. 940 gminy include cities and tow ...
s (four urban, one urban-rural and three rural). These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bedzin County
Land counties of Silesian Voivodeship