List of former municipalities of Norway
This is a list of former municipalities of Norway, 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 led by Nikolai Schei, 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, 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 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 was merge with Kristiansund on January 1, 2008. Others rejected the possibility following the referendums, such as Hobøl and Spydeberg or Hol and Ål. The project was abandoned by Solberg's successor Åslaug Haga in early 2006. In 2016 and 2017, when Erna Solberg 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 and Hole. 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
Akershus
Former | Fate | Result | Year |
Aker | Incorporated into Oslo | Oslo | 1948 |
Aurskog | Merged with Nordre Høland, Setskog and Søndre Høland | Aurskog-Høland | 1966 |
Blaker | Incorporated into Sørum | Sørum | 1962 |
Drøbak | Incorporated into Frogn | Frogn | 1962 |
Feiring | Incorporated into Eidsvoll | Eidsvoll | 1964 |
Fet | Merged with Skedsmo and Sørum | Lillestrøm | 2020 |
Høland | Split in two | Nordre Høland Søndre Høland | 1924 |
Hølen | Incorporated into Vestby | Vestby | 1946 |
Kråkstad | Incorporated into Ski | Ski | 1964 |
Lillestrøm | Incorporated into Skedsmo | Skedsmo | 1962 |
Nordre Høland | Merged with Aurskog, Setskog and Søndre Høland | Aurskog-Høland | 1966 |
Oppegård | Merged with Ski | Nordre Follo | 2020 |
Setskog | Merged with Aurskog, Nordre Høland and Søndre Høland | Aurskog-Høland | 1966 |
Skedsmo | Merged with Fet and Sørum | Lillestrøm | 2020 |
Ski | Merged with Oppegård | Nordre Follo | 2020 |
Son | Incorporated into Vestby | Vestby | 1964 |
Son/Hølen | Split in two | Son Hølen | 1847 |
Søndre Høland | Merged with Aurskog, Nordre Høland and Setskog | Aurskog-Høland | 1966 |
Sørum | Merged with Fet and Skedsmo | Lillestrøm | 2020 |