Since 1949 (except 1990–1996),

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

has been divided into a number of (singular ; usually translated as "Regions" with capital R). Their number, borders and functions have been changed several times. There are eight regions of Slovakia and they correspond to the EU's NUTS 3 level of local administrative units. Each kraj consists of (counties or districts), which are further divided into (municipalities). There are 79

districts A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...

List

After a period without kraje and without any equivalent (1990–1996), the kraje were reintroduced in 1996. As for administrative division, Slovakia has been subdivided into 8 kraje since 24 July 1996: Since 2002, Slovakia is divided into 8 (self-governing regions), which are called by the Constitution (Higher Territorial Units), abbr. VÚC. The territory and borders of the self-governing regions are identical with the territory and borders of the kraje. Therefore, the word "kraj" can be replaced by "VÚC" or "samosprávny kraj" in each case in the above list. The main difference is that organs of samosprávne kraje are

self-governing Self-governance, self-government, self-sovereignty or self-rule is the ability of a person or group to exercise all necessary functions of regulation without intervention from an external authority. It may refer to personal conduct or to any ...

, with an elected chairperson and assembly, while the organs of kraje are appointed by the government.

Name

The term "Region" () should not be confused with: * the general (i.e. non-administrative) term "region" () as it is used for example in the articles List of traditional regions of Slovakia or

List of tourism regions of Slovakia There are the following official tourism regions in Slovakia: Division until 2004 The districts (okresy) completely or partly included in the regions are indicated in parentheses: *Bratislava and its surroundings (Bratislava, Malacky, Pezinok, ...

*the 4 "regions" ( or or ) that correspond to the NUTS 2 level, i.e. groups of several kraje, used by the

Eurostat Eurostat ("European Statistical Office"; also DG ESTAT) is a department of the European Commission ( Directorate-General), located in the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statist ...

for statistical purposes. These are: **

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

SK 01 (Bratislava Region)comprises only this single region ** Západné Slovensko SK 02 (Western Slovakia)

Trnava Trnava (, , ; , also known by other #Names and etymology, alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, to the northeast of Bratislava, on the Trnávka river. It is the capital of the Trnava Region and the Trnava District. It is the seat o ...

Trenčín Trenčín (, also known by other #Names and etymology, alternative names) is a List of towns in Slovakia, city in western Slovakia of the central Váh River valley near the Czech Republic, Czech border, around from Bratislava. It has a populati ...

and

Nitra Nitra (; also known by other #Etymology, alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, situated at the foot of Zobor Mountain in the valley of the river Nitra (river), Nitra. It is located 95 km east of Bratislava. With a population of ...

** Stredné Slovensko SK 03 (Central Slovakia)

Žilina Žilina (; ; ; ; Names of European cities in different languages: U-Z#Z, names in other languages) is a city in north-western Slovakia, around from the capital Bratislava, close to both the Czech and Polish borders. It is the List of cities ...

and

Banská Bystrica Banská Bystrica (, also known by other #Etymology, alternative names) is a city in central Slovakia, located on the Hron River in a long and wide valley encircled by the mountain chains of the Low Tatras, the Greater Fatra, Veľká Fatra, and t ...

** Východné Slovensko SK 04 (Eastern Slovakia)

Prešov Prešov () is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is the seat of administrative Prešov Region () and Šariš. With a population of approximately 85,000 for the city, and in total more than 100,000 with the urban area, it is the second-largest city i ...

and

Košice Košice is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of approximately 230,000, Košice is the second-largest cit ...

History

Prior to 1949

Historically, Slovakia was not divided into kraje, but into

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

( or ). This was the case when present-day Slovakia was part of: *

Great Moravia Great Moravia (; , ''Meghálī Moravía''; ; ; , ), or simply Moravia, was the first major state that was predominantly West Slavic to emerge in the area of Central Europe, possibly including territories which are today part of the Czech Repub ...

(c. 9th century) *

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...

(c. 11th/12th century1918) *

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

(the ''župy'' existed 19181928) *the WWII Slovak Republic (the ''župy'' existed 19401945) In 1928–1939 (and formally also 1945–1948), Slovakia as a whole formed the administrative unit "Slovak land" () within Czechoslovakia.

24 December 1948/1 January 1949 – 30 June 1960

*Bratislavský kraj (Bratislava Region) *Banskobystrický kraj (Banská Bystrica Region) *Košický kraj (Košice Region) *Nitriansky kraj (Nitra Region) *Prešovský kraj (Prešov Region) *Žilinský kraj (Žilina Region) Each kraj was named after its principal city.

1 July 1960 – 19 December 1990

* Stredoslovenský kraj (Central Slovak Region) * Východoslovenský kraj (Eastern Slovak Region) * Západoslovenský kraj (Western Slovak Region) *

(before 22 March 1968, part of the Západoslovenský kraj, afterwards a partly separate entity; from January 1971 a separate kraj) Note: The kraje were abolished from 1 July 1969, until 28 December 1970, when they were reintroduced.

Traditional regions

There are also other regions in Slovakia, which do not correspond to historical counties:

References

External links

EU-maps (the kraje correspond to the NUTS 3 level with EUROSTAT)

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20151005141129/http://www.eastern-slovakia.eu.sk/ Nature and landscape of Eastern Slovakia in photo {{Articles on first-level administrative divisions of European countries Subdivisions of Slovakia Slovakia, Regions Slovakia 1 Regions, Slovakia Slovakia geography-related lists