Pärnu County

Pärnu County
Pärnu County
County of Estonia
	Flag Coat of arms
Country	Estonia
Capital	Pärnu
Government
• Governor	Andres Metsoja
Area
• Total	4,806.68 km2 (1,855.87 sq mi)
Population (Jan 2016)
• Total	82,997
• Density	17/km2 (45/sq mi)
Ethnicity
• Estonians	89.1%
• Russians	8%
• other	3%
ISO 3166 code	EE-67
Vehicle registration	F
Website	www.parnumaa.ee

Pärnu County (Estonian: Pärnu maakond), or Pärnumaa (German: Kreis Pernau), is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It is situated in south-western part of the country, on the coast of Gulf of Riga, and borders Lääne and Rapla counties to the north, Järva and Viljandi counties to the east, and Latvia to the south. In January 2013 Pärnu County had a population of 81,428 – constituting 6.3% of the total population of Estonia.^[1]

Pärnu County is the largest county of Estonia in terms of land area.

History

In Pärnu county there is the oldest known human settlement in Estonia, which is the town of Sindi, and it is 2 km up the Pärnu River, near the village of Pulli. It dates back to 8500 BCE in the Mesolithic historical period.

County Government

The County Government (Estonian: Maavalitsus) is led by a Governor (Estonian: maavanem), who is appointed by the Government of Estonia for a term of five years. Since 1 January 2010, the Governor position is held by Andres Metsoja.

Tourism

The city of Pärnu is a popular holiday resort for Estonians and increasingly for non-Estonians, e.g., from Sweden, Finland, Germany, and Russia.

Municipalities

The county is subdivided into municipalities. There are 2 urban municipalities (Estonian: linnad – towns) and 17 rural municipalities (Estonian: vallad – parishes) in Pärnu County.