Counties of Norway Counties of Norway Norway is divided into 18 administrative regions, called counties (singular , plural (Bokmål) / "fylke" (Nynorsk) from Old Norse: "fylki" from the word "folk"); until 1918, they were known as "amter". The counties form the first-level subdivisions of Norway and are further divided into 422 municipalities ("kommune", pl. "kommuner" / "kommunar"). The island territories of Svalbard and Jan Mayen are outside the county division and ruled directly at the national level. The capital Oslo is considered both a county and a municipality. In 2017 the government decided to abolish the current counties and to replace them with
Cooperatives of Norway late 1980s these were allowed to create stocks, or "grunnfondsbevis", to increase their capital. This has led to a lot of the banks being partially private and no longer cooperatives. Still, many of the smaller bank have remained as true cooperatives. Formally the banks are considered self-owning and not customer owned. Cooperatives of Norway Cooperatives of Norway have been created to represent the interest of either customers or suppliers. Areas with cooperatives include retailing, food manufacturing, banking and insurance. Most cooperatives are registered as BA entities. Coop NKL, part of Coop Norden, is the second largest retail group in Norway,