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
Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
. The municipality covers an area of 18.41 km
2 (2013), and has a population of 14,450 (1. January 2025). Its mayor is Kenneth Gøtterup, a member of the conservative party
Conservative People's Party (Denmark).
1970 Danish Municipal Reform
Not until four years after the
1970 Danish Municipal Reform on 1 April 1974 two new municipalities were formed in
Copenhagen County, namely Dragør Municipality, formed by the merger of
Dragør (an independent parish from 1 April 1954) and
Store Magleby parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
es and
Høje-Taastrup Municipality, which from that date also included
Sengeløse parish (which - as an already existing parish - was also made an independent municipality from 1 April 1970 until 31 March 1974; but it was considered too small to remain as an independent municipality). The inhabitants would have preferred to remain as independent municipalities.
Store Magleby, which was larger in area than Dragør, had a large number of
subdivisions (Danish (singular): parcel;udstykning) with owner-occupied homes built on the boundary with Dragør (as far away from the noise as possible from planes landing at
Copenhagen Airport, and taking restrictions in building regulations (inside city (built-up area) limits versus outside city limits) into consideration) before the merger.
Because the voters of
Store Magleby and
Sengeløse were almost exclusively owner-occupiers, who voted center-rightwing, whereas
Høje-Taastrup Municipality and
Dragør Municipality to a large extent consisted of tenants who rented their apartments and who voted center-leftwing, there were heated debates and reluctance among the voters of
Store Magleby and
Sengeløse about joining the new municipalities. This was because the center-rightwing voters would be in a minority at elections for their local councils.
Parishes
Dragør parish is surrounded by Store Magleby parish to the north, south, and west and the strait of
Øresund to the east, and Dragør parish thus does not border the neighboring
Tårnby municipality. Dragør parish has an area of only 156
hectare
The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...
s (1.56 square km;0.6 sq mi), 8.6% of Dragør municipality's area, as opposed to Store Magleby parish's 1602 hectares, the latter accounting for more than 88% of Dragør municipality's area. A part of
Copenhagen Airport lies in Dragør municipality. With 4,144 people (1 January 1970:4,309), 29.77% of the population, recorded as living there on 1 January 2013, Dragør parish has a population density of 2,656 persons per square km (6,880/sq mi), Store Magleby parish with 9,737 people (1970:5,499), 69.96% of the population, has a density of 607.8 persons per square km (1,574.2/sq mi). On 1 January 2020 12,309 people (2010:11,573) lived in the built-up area of Dragør (includes St. Magleby), 1,739 (2010:1,713) in Søvang, 408 people (2010:237) were living in rural areas (areas with below 200 people), and thirty-eight persons (2010:41) were recorded as not having a fixed address. On 1 January 1970 9,808 people lived in the two parishes, and on 1 January 2010 the municipality had a population of 13,564 people.
Overview
The main town is
Dragør. The seat of the town hall is on Kirkevej 7 in
Store Magleby, which easily can house such a large building.
Its only neighboring municipality is
TÃ¥rnby to the north. To the east and south is the
Øresund, the
strait that separates Zealand and Amager from
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
. To the southwest is Køge Bay (
Køge Bugt).
Dragør Municipality was not merged with any adjacent municipality under the
municipal reform of 2007, as it agreed to enter into a "municipal cooperation agreement" with
TÃ¥rnby Municipality.
Economy
Prior to its dissolution,
Maersk Air
Maersk Air A/S was a Danish airline which operated between 1969 and 2005. Owned by the Maersk, A. P. Møller–Mærsk Group, it operated a mix of scheduled and chartered passenger and cargo services. Headquartered at Dragør, its main operating ...
had its headquarters in
Dragør in the municipality. When it existed,
Sterling Airlines had its head office at
Copenhagen Airport South in Dragør.
[Contact]
" Sterling Airlines. Retrieved on 13 February 2011. "Head office Sterling Airlines A/S Copenhagen Airport South 2791 Dragoer Denmark."
Politics
Municipal council
Dragør's municipal council consists of 15 members, elected every four years.
Below are the municipal councils elected since the
Municipal Reform of 2007.
References
* Municipal statistics
NetBorger Kommunefakta delivered fro
KMD aka Kommunedata (Municipal Data)* Municipal mergers and neighbors
Eniro new municipalities map
External links
Municipality's official website
Visit Dragør website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dragor Municipality
Municipalities in the Capital Region of Denmark
Municipalities of Denmark
Copenhagen metropolitan area
Amager