This is a list of former

municipalities of Norway Norway is divided into 11 administrative regions, called county, counties (''fylker'' in Norwegian, singular: ''fylke''), and 356 municipality, municipalities (''kommuner/-ar'', singular: ''kommune'' – cf. Municipality#communes, communes). The ...

, i.e. municipalities that no longer exist. When the local council system was introduced in Norway in 1837-38, the country had 392 municipalities. In 1958 the number had grown to a total of 744 rural municipalities, 64 city municipalities as well as a small number of small seaports with '' ladested'' status. A

committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

led by

Nikolai Schei Nikolai Andreas Schei (9 May 1901 – 25 May 1985) was a Norwegian jurist and civil servant. He was born in Førde as the son of Per Schei (1872–1960) and Johanne Schei (1874–1963). He was a brother of Andreas Schei, and through him an uncle ...

, formed in 1946 to examine the situation, proposed hundreds of mergers to reduce the number of municipalities and improve the quality of local administration. Most of the mergers were carried out, albeit to significant popular protest. As of January 2006 there are 431 municipalities in Norway, and there are plans for further mergers and political pressure to do so. In 2002

Erna Solberg Erna Solberg (; born 24 February 1961) is a Norwegian politician and the current Leader of the Opposition. She served as the 35th prime minister of Norway from 2013 to 2021, and has been Leader of the Conservative Party since May 2004. Solberg w ...

, Minister of Local Government and Regional Development at the time, expressed a wish to reduce the current tally with 100. The Ministry spent approximately 140 million

NOK Nok is a village in Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. The village is an archeological site. Archaeology The discovery of terracotta figurines at this location caused its name to be used for the Nok culture, of which these ...

on a project to elucidate the possibilities in this field, and referendums were held in several municipalities in conjunction with the municipal elections of 2003. A small number of municipalities agreed to the plan; for instance the municipality of

Frei Frei is a former municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 2008 when it was incorporated into Kristiansund Municipality. It was located between the Kvernesfjorden and Freifjo ...

merged with

Kristiansund Kristiansund (, ; historically spelled Christianssund and earlier named Fosna) is a municipality on the western coast of Norway in the Nordmøre district of Møre og Romsdal county. The administrative center of the municipality is the town of ...

on January 1, 2008. Others rejected the possibility following the referendums, such as

Hobøl Hobøl was a municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality was the village of Elvestad. Hobøl is situated about southeast of Oslo. The parish of ''Haabøl'' was established as a municipality on 1 Janu ...

and

Spydeberg Spydeberg was a municipality in former Østfold county, Norway, until December 31. 2019. At January 1. 2020 it became a part of the new and greater municipality named " Indre Østfold Kommune" after the region, together with Askim and Trøgstad a ...

or Hol and

Ål Ål is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality in the traditional and electoral district Buskerud in Viken (county), Viken Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Hallingdal. The administ ...

. The project was abandoned by Solberg's successor

Åslaug Haga Åslaug Marie Haga (born 21 October 1959) is Norwegian diplomat, politician and international civil servant. She has been board chair for various organizations, including the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) and the Peace Research ...

in early 2006. In 2016 and 2017, when

was the Prime Minister of Norway, she and her government pushed for further municipal consolidations that mostly took place in 2020, reducing the number of municipalities to 356. Some municipalities ceased to exist only for a limited amount of time, such as

Flakstad Flakstad is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of the island group Lofoten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Ramberg. Other villages include Fredvang, Napp, Nusfjord ...

and

Hole A hole is an opening in or through a particular medium, usually a solid body. Holes occur through natural and artificial processes, and may be useful for various purposes, or may represent a problem needing to be addressed in many fields of en ...

(which were former municipalities between 1964 and 1976). In cases like these, the mergers of municipalities were reversed and the former municipalities once again became self-governing. On the other hand, a small number of newly created municipalities were abolished in the same way, for instance Tolga-Os, which came into being as a result of a 1966 merger which was reversed in 1976.

List by county (pre-2020 division)

Akershus

Aust-Agder

Buskerud

Finnmark

Hedmark

Hordaland

Møre og Romsdal

Nordland

Oppland

Rogaland

Sogn og Fjordane

Telemark

Troms

Trøndelag

Vest-Agder

Vestfold

Østfold

References

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Notes

{{reflist Norway, former Municipalities, former Municipalities, former Municipalities, former