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
Bible Belt (Norway) Bible Belt (Norway) The Norwegian Bible Belt (Norwegian: "bibelbeltet") is a loosely defined southwestern coastal area of Norway, which is more religious than most of Norway. Typically, the definition covers Western Norway (Vestlandet) and Southern Norway (Sørlandet), which includes the counties of Rogaland (typically called the "buckle" of the Bible Belt), Hordaland, Sogn og Fjordane, Møre og Romsdal, Vest-Agder and Aust-Agder. However, the most urban areas, such as Stavanger (once known as the 'religious capital of Norway'), have become strongly secularised since the 1960s and are no longer considered part of the Bible Belt. Socioeconomic gender equality in the Bible