Counties of Iceland

Politics of Iceland


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v t e

Iceland is traditionally divided into 23 counties, sýslur, and 25 independent towns, kaupstaðir. Today this division is no longer significant as far as administration is concerned. Iceland is now split up between 26 sýslumenn (magistrates) that are the highest authority over the local police (except in Reykjavík where there is a special office of police commissioner) and carry out administrative functions such as declaring bankruptcy and marrying people outside of the church. The jurisdictions of these magistrates often follow the lines of the traditional counties but not always. When speaking of these new "administrative" counties the custom is to associate them with the county seats rather than using the names of the traditional counties, even when they cover the same area.

Composition

Independent towns (kaupstaðir) were first created in the 18th century as urbanization began in Iceland, this practice continued into the 1980s the last town that was declared an independent town was Ólafsvík in 1983. Since then, the laws regarding municipalities have been changed in such a way that there is no longer any distinction made between urban or rural municipalities.

Traditional counties

The traditional counties are:

Independent towns

The 24 independent towns are:

v t e Historical counties of Iceland
Capital Region	Kjósarsýsla
Southern Peninsula	Gullbringusýsla
Western Region	Borgarfjarðarsýsla Dalasýsla Mýrasýsla Snæfellsnes- og Hnappadalssýsla
Westfjords	Austur-Barðastrandarsýsla Norður-Ísafjarðarsýsla Strandasýsla Vestur-Barðastrandarsýsla Vestur-Ísafjarðarsýsla
Northwestern Region	Austur-Húnavatnssýsla Skagafjarðarsýsla Vestur-Húnavatnssýsla
Northeastern Region	Eyjafjarðarsýsla Norður-Þingeyjarsýsla Suður-Þingeyjarsýsla
Eastern Region	Austur-Skaftafellssýsla Norður-Múlasýsla Suður-Múlasýsla
Southern Region	Árnessýsla Rangárvallasýsla Vestur-Skaftafellssýsla

v t e First-level administrative divisions in European countries
Sovereign states	Albania Andorra Armenia² Austria Azerbaijan¹ Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus² Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia¹ Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Kazakhstan¹ Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands North Macedonia Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia¹ San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey¹ Ukraine United Kingdom
States with limited recognition	Abkhazia² Kosovo Northern Cyprus² South Ossetia² Transnistria
Table of administrative divisions by country ¹ Spans the conventional boundary between Europe and another continent. ² Considered European for cultural, political and historical reasons but is geographically in Western Asia.

Composition

Traditional counties

Independent towns

See also