The

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

are administratively divided in 29 municipalities (''kommunur''), with about 120 cities and villages. Until December 31, 2008, there were 34 municipalities, and until December 31, 2004, there were 48 municipalities. In the coming years the number of Faroese municipalities is expected to drop to somewhere between 7 and 15, as there is currently a rationale towards municipal

amalgamation Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form. Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to: Mathematics and science * Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal **Pan am ...

and a decentralization of public services. In 1998 it was suggested that no municipality should have fewer than 2,000 inhabitants, but whether this will be true is a political question. The Faroese government has furthermore decided not to conduct forced, top-down amalgamation, but to leave the process to the free will of the municipalities. In many small municipalities there is some resistance to the amalgamation process, and as a result two kinds of municipalities are being created: large municipalities (town-municipalities) that are eager to attract smaller municipalities into amalgamation, and small municipalities which are either trying to avoid amalgamation or seek to amalgamate with other small municipalities. The geographically large Sunda municipality is an example of this. The larger municipalities are organized in Kommunusamskipan Føroya (KFS) and the smaller are organized in Føroya Kommunufelag (FKF). Map-kommunur-foroya-2017

List of municipalities

As of June 1, 2019, there were 29 municipalities in the Faroe Islands.

History

* On 1 January 2017 (30 municipalities reduced to 29): ** Húsar fused with

Klaksvík Klaksvík is the second largest town of the Faroe Islands behind Tórshavn. The town is located on Borðoy, which is one of the northernmost islands (the Norðoyar). It is the administrative centre of Klaksvík municipality. History The first ...

* On 1 January 2009 (34 municipalities reduced to 30): ** Funningur fused with

Runavík Runavík is a comparatively urbanised village in Runavík Municipality, Faroe Islands. It lies on the south half of the isle of Eysturoy. Port Founded in 1916, Runavík has an important port, originally used predominantly by fishing boats but n ...

. ** Gøta and Leirvík fused into

Eystur Eystur Municipality (Eysturkommuna) is a municipality (kommuna) in the Faroe Islands. In Faroese, ''eystur'' means east and so the municipality is ''East Municipality''. It covers an eastern part of the island of Eysturoy. It was created on 1 Jan ...

. **

Miðvágur Miðvágur ( da, Midvåg), is a village in the Faroe Islands on Vágar. It has been a municipality until 1 January 2009 when it fused with Sandavágur into Vága kommuna. Located on the south coast of the island of Vágar, Miðvágur is the ...

and

Sandavágur Sandavágur ( da, Sandevåg) is a city on the south coast of the Faroese island of Vágar. The name ''Sandavágur'' means ''sandy bay'' and refers to the sandy beach which used to be much larger than present. From one point in Sandavágur you ca ...

fused into

Vágar Vágar ( da, Vågø) is one of the 18 islands in the archipelago of the Faroe Islands and the most westerly of the ''large islands''. With a size of , it ranks number three, behind Streymoy and Eysturoy. Vágar region also comprises the island ...

. ** Svínoy fused with

. * On 1 January 2005 (38 municipalities reduced to 34): ** Elduvík, Oyndarfjørður and Skála fused with Runavík. ** Gjógv, Haldarsvík, Hósvík, Hvalvík and Saksun fused with Sunda municipality. ** Hestur, Kirkjubøur and Nólsoy fused with Tórshavn. ** Mikladalur fused with Klaksvík. ** Mykines fused with Sørvágur. * On 1 January 1997 ** Argir and Kaldbak fused with Tórshavn. * On 1 August 1948 ** Funningur split into Funningur and Gjógv.

Notes

Hagstova Føroya
- information from 2007.

Tórshavn Tórshavn (; lit. "Thor's harbour"), usually locally referred to as simply ''Havn'', is the capital and largest city of the Faroe Islands. It is located in the southern part on the east coast of Streymoy. To the northwest of the city lies the ...

is both the capital of the Streymoy region and its own region, the latter being identical with

Tórshavn municipality Tórshavn Municipality (Tórshavnar kommuna) is the municipality of the Faroese capital Tórshavn and its surroundings. The municipality covers the southern half of Streymoy island and adjacent minor islands and has an area of 173 km2. It ...

, but not including the area of the former Kollafjarðar kommuna.

both capital of the Norðoyggjar region as well of its own region, which constitute of the two municipalities Klaksvík and Hvannasund.

References

Hagstova Føroya - Municipalities by size and width, population growth and density, age and sex - December 31, 2002
(in PDF)
Hagstova Føroya - Municipalities by size and width, population growth and density, age and sex - December 31, 2002
(in PDF)
Population by municipalities. 1 Jan. 2015 - PDF page 11

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Municipalities Of The Faroe Islands

Subdivisions of the Faroe Islands Faroe Islands 1

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 ...

Faroe

List of municipalities

History

See also

Notes

References

External links