Free sms to Norway

Norway

The Kingdom of Norway is a Nordic country on the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, located in Europe, and bordering Sweden, Finland and Russia. Norway has a very elongated shape; the country's extensive coastline along the North Atlantic Ocean is home to its famous fjords. The Kingdom of Norway also includes the Arctic island territories of Svalbard and Jan Mayen. The Norwegian sovereignty on Svalbard is based on the Svalbard Treaty, but this does not apply to Jan Mayen. Bouvet Island in the South Atlantic Ocean and a claim for Peter I Island in the South Pacific Ocean are also external dependencies, but these are not part of the Kingdom. Norway also claims Queen Maud Land in Antarctica where it has established the Troll permanent research station.

Administrative divisions

Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called fylker (singular fylke) and 431 kommuner (singular kommune). Fylke and kommune are officially translated to English as county and municipality. The fylke is the intermediate administration between state and municipality. For a few years there's been an ongoing debate whether the 19 fylker should be replaced with 5 - 9 larger regions. Some expect this to happen by 2010, whereas other expect the intermediate administration to disappear entirely. The latest option wouldprobably require consolidating the municipalities into larger entities and delegating greater responsibility to them.

The counties of Norway are:

Akershus
Aust-Agder
Buskerud
Finnmark
Hedmark
Hordaland
More og Romsdal
Nordland
Nord-Trondelag
Oppland
Oslo
Ostfold
Rogaland
Sogn og Fjordane
Sor-Trondelag
Telemark
Troms
Vest-Agder
Vestfold