Counties ( sq, or ), also sometimes known as prefectures (), are the first-level administrative subdivisions of

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

, replacing the earlier districts. Since 2000, there have been 12 counties. Since 2015, they have been divided into 61

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

and 373

administrative units Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...

History

Since its Declaration of Independence from the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

in 1912, Albania has reorganized its internal administration 21 times. The primary division until the year 2000 was into districts ( sq, rrethe), whose number, size, and importance varied over time.A Brief History of the Administrative-territorial Organization in Albania
, Ministry of State for Local Issues They were organized into groups comprising 12 counties beginning in 1991. The current status of the counties is based on the 1998 constitution and was carried out on 31 July 2000. The former districts were abolished entirely and replaced with urban municipalities () and rural municipalities (), which further oversaw

villages A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

() in the countryside. This was revised in 2014, so that the 2015 local elections divided the counties into

() at the regional level and

() for

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-l ...

List

References

{{Articles on first-level administrative divisions of European countries Counties, Albania

Subdivisions of Albania

History

List

See also

References