Jutland the German North Frisian Islands stretch along the southwest coast of Jutland in the German Bight. The largest cities in the Danish section of Jutland are as follows: Aarhus, Silkeborg, Billund, Randers, Kolding, Horsens, Vejle, Fredericia and Haderslev, along with a number of smaller towns, make up the East Jutland metropolitan area. Administratively, Danish Jutland comprises three of Denmark's five regions, namely the Region Nordjylland, Region Midtjylland and the western half of Region of Southern Denmark, which includes Funen. The five administrative regions came into effect on 1 January 2007, following a structural reform. The southern third of the Jutland
Counties of Denmark 1948; from 1816 to 1948 the islands had the status of a Danish county. A government proposal in 2004 called for the counties to be abolished and replaced by five large regions with health care as their main responsibilities: two regions in Jutland, two regions in Zealand and one region covering Funen and the southernmost part of Jutland. The proposal also required the municipalities to merge reducing them from 271 to 98, with a minimum of 20,000 inhabitants in each municipality, although some exceptions were made to this rule. From 2007 25 municipalities have fewer than 30,000 inhabitants each, with