The municipalities emerged in 1838

The Chairmanship Act came into force on 1 January 1838 and marked the start of municipal self-government in Norway. The law established city municipalities (A market town (Old Norse: kaupstaðr, marknadsplass) was an urban community with privilege that gave townspeople a monopoly on trade and other industries, so-called market town rights. At the same time, there was a type of urban community with more limited rights, namely the charging stations, which for a long period were subordinate to the nearest market town.) and district municipalities (A rural municipality (1837-1992) was a municipality that did not have market town rights like the city municipalities had. The name herad municipality itself was introduced in 1863.) based on the existing ecclesiastical divisions. The municipalities were largely based on the former The clerical districts were the most important units within ecclesiastical administration and included several parishes (congregations). They were not normally supposed to cross municipal boundaries, but did so in some cases. Clerical districts were gradually abolished from 2004., which were administrative units within the Church of Norway.

The municipalities thus often coincided with church parishes and clerical districts, which reflected the strong connection between the church and the state in Norway at that time.

A changing Norway

Norway's municipal structure has gone through major changes. It is possible to observe a steady trend towards more and smaller municipalities before the Second World War, while the post-war years are characterized by a movement towards fewer and larger municipalities. Defining the absolute number of municipalities per year is not as easy as it seems. Here, consideration must be given to both the status and the shipping. In the figure Number of municipalities per year, the starting point is the number of municipalities that existed until 1 January 1938. A loading city (or "unloading and loading city") was a town or a port where one had the right to conduct direct trade and also the import and export of goods. such as Hvitsten and Holmsbu are not counted, even if they are found in some censuses as their own municipalities. In recent years, it has been a matter of course that changes in the municipal structure take place from 1 January. Previously, the changes could take effect at any time of the year. In Statistics Norway's classification system KLASS, the changes are taken into account from 1 January of the following year so that they can go in step with the production of statistics. This is the reason why numbers from the figure The number of municipalities per year may deviate from other sources. If, on the other hand, you check the number of municipalities the following year, you see an interaction.

Number of municipalities each year

Introduction of municipal numbers in 1946

During the 1946 census, Norwegian municipalities were given municipality numbers for the first time. The numbering made it simpler and more unambiguous to create a form for digital handling.

At the time, no one could imagine the frequent changes and the rapid digital development that came later. For machine handling of data, it is an advantage that the codes are unique. This important premise has been more strictly followed up in recent years. While it is clear that there is a good deal of reuse of numbers in this time series. Municipalities have often retained their number in the event of splits and mergers, even if the geographical extent has changed a lot. In addition, municipality numbers have been reused for completely different municipalities. You can see some examples in the table below:

An observant reader will notice that since the municipality number was first introduced in 1946, there is a long period (back to 1838) where we have had to use "fictitious" codes. This means that we have extended the timeline backwards, and where municipalities disappeared before 1946, they have been assigned a number, even if there is no statistical data that can be linked to this number.

Changes in boundaries, name and number

Municipalities have changed a lot, been divided, merged, changed names, borders or belonged to a county.

1120 Klepp municipality stands out as the only municipality in Norway that is unchanged with respect to boundaries and county belonging since the Presidency Act was introduced in 1837. 1

Over time, many municipalities have changed names, often in connection with mergers or divisions. Sometimes it was only the spelling that was changed. Oslo and Solund changed names several times. In 1890, 1412 Utvær changed its name to 1412 Sulen, and in 1923 the name was again changed to 1412 Solund. 0301 Christiania changed its name to 0301 Kristiania in 1877, before it was changed to 0301 Oslo in 1925.

The municipal number has also undergone several changes. Here are examples of code changes that are not a result of splitting or merging:

  • 0421 Kongsvinger got a new municipality number in 1965, when it was changed to 0402.
  • 0798 Stavern received city status in 1943, and in that context the municipality number was changed to 0708.
  • 0980 Åseral got a new number in 1881 when the municipality was transferred from Aust-Agder to Vest-Agder.
  • 0580 Sollia was transferred from Oppland to Hedmark county and was given number 0431 in 1890.
  • 1214 The beer was transferred from Hordaland to Rogaland in 2002.
  • In 2019, 1567 Rindal county moved from Møre og Romsdal to Trøndelag and got a new municipality number, 5061.

Several changes took place during the regional reform in 2020, which can be seen in the table below:

It is not unusual for a municipality to be divided into two or three new municipalities, but there are few municipalities that give rise to four new municipalities. This happened, for example, with Kvernes (1553), which in 1897 was divided into Eide (1551), Kornstad (1552), Kvernes (1553) and Bremsnes (1554).

Røros, Grong and Ibestad are also the mother municipalities of four new daughter municipalities. For example, in 1927 Røros was divided into Røros mountain town (1640), Røros country parish (1641), Brekken (1642), and Glåmos (1643). In 1923, Grong was divided into Røyrvik (1739), Namsskogan (1740), Harran (1741), and Grong (1742). In 1926, Ibestad was divided into Andørja (1916), Ibestad (1917), Astafjord (1918), and Gratangen (1919).

The documentation for the Standard for municipal division is coming soon.

The counties

The concept of county in Norway has deep historical roots that stretch back to Norse times, when the counties functioned as petty kingdoms. Norway's modern county divisions were however first established as "amter" (counties) in 1671, but underwent several reforms in line with changing political and administrative needs.

In 1919, the "amter" were renamed "fylker", and over time the division has been subject to major changes, particularly in recent decades. The diagram "The number of counties per year" shows this historical development through the number of county units over time, while the map visualization provides an overview of geographical extent, with the opportunity to study changes across different years.

Number of counties each year

 

The two-year project 2022-GEO-IBA-HistGeoStat is financed by Eurostat.

1 The text "1120 Klepp municipality stands out as the only municipality in Norway that has had the same boundaries since the Chairmanship Act was passed in 1837." was clarified with "is unchanged with respect to boundaries and county". The text: "Also the municipalities Time (1121), Vega (1815) and Saltdal (1840) have remained relatively stable throughout history, although there have been minor border adjustments due to transfers of smaller areas." was removed.