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
Counties of Norway each "len" was designated an "amt" (plural "amt") and the "lenmann" was titled "amtmann", from German "Amt" (office), reflecting the bias of the Danish court of that period. After 1671 Norway was divided into four principal "amt" or "stiftsamt" and there were nine subordinate "amt": From 1730 Norway had the following "amt": At this time there were also two counties (grevskap) controlled by actual counts, together forming what is now Vestfold county: In 1760 Norway had the following "stiftamt" and "amt": From 1919 each "amt" was renamed a "fylke" (plural "fylke(r)") (county) and the "amtmann" was now titled "fylkesmann" (county