Counties of Sweden

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Updates: 

I've updated the population figures because they were very old. Usually I wait for a new census, but it appears that Sweden doesn't take censuses anymore, relying instead on continuous population registers. Source: Statistiska centralbyrån  (SCB). Since I was updating Sweden anyway, I also updated the county areas using a table downloaded from SCB . I used the column headed "Land area and inland water excluding the four large lakes".

The NUTS code scheme was revised in 2003. The code for Stockholms län changed from SE011 to SE010.

International standard ISO 3166-2 was published on December 15, 1998. It superseded ISO/DIS 3166-2 (draft international standard). For Sweden, the draft standard showed 24 counties. The final standard shows 21 counties. The difference is due to actual changes in Sweden's administrative geography.

Sweden has two sets of county codes. Länskoder are two-digit codes; länsbokstäver are one- or two-letter codes. The alphabetic codes are more familiar to the typical Swede. The numeric codes are used in governmental work. In government reports, for example, the counties may be sorted by numeric code. Both versions of ISO 3166-2 show both sets of codes, but the draft standard represents the numeric codes as official. The alphabetic codes are given as background information. The final standard reverses the positions of the two sets of codes. It states, however, that the numeric codes may eventually supplant the alphabetic ones.

Eurostat has created a set of codes called NUTS codes, for "Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics". They are hierarchical codes representing different geographical subdivisions of the European Union countries. The codes for the counties of Sweden are listed in the table below.

Country overview: 

Sweden was sovereign over Norway during most of the 19th century. The united kingdom was called Sweden and Norway. Norway became separate on 1905-06-07.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Sverige
2. Dutch: Zweden, Koninkrijk Zweden (formal)
3. English: Kingdom of Sweden (formal)
4. Finnish: Ruotsi
5. French: Suède f
6. German: Schweden n
7. Icelandic: Svíþjóð
8. Italian: Svezia f
9. Norwegian: Sverige, Kongeriket Sverige (formal)
10. Portuguese: Suécia, Reino m da Suécia f (formal)
11. Spanish: Suecia, Reino m de Suecia f (formal)
12. Swedish: Sverige, Konungariket Sverige (formal)

Origin of name: 

from ethnic name variously transcribed Suethi, Svear, etc.

Primary subdivisions: 

Sweden is divided into 21 län (counties).

The NUTS code system also defines groupings of counties. All the counties whose NUTS codes begin with the same four characters (for example, SE06-) can be designated as a group using those four characters. These areas have no administrative significance, but are used for statistical summaries. Here are the descriptions of the eight level-two NUTS regions of Sweden.

Note: The codes for Småland with Islands and West Sweden were originally SE03 and SE05, respectively. Around 2001, for some unexplained reason, they were changed to the codes listed above.

Postal codes: 

Sweden uses five-digit postal codes, sometimes written with a space between the third and fourth digits. Swedish addresses can be identified by prefixing the postal codes with "SE-".

Further subdivisions:

See the Municipalities of Sweden page.

The counties are divided into kommuner (municipalities; 288 in 1998), which are further subdivided into församlingar (parishes). Sweden has a hierarchical system of numerical codes for these entities. The first two digits are a länskod, the first four are a kommunkod, and all six digits are a församlingskod.

There are also 25 traditional divisions called landskap (provinces). The counties and the provinces overlap, but rarely coincide. There are also three traditional regions: Götaland, Norrland, and Svealand, each consisting of several provinces.

Territorial extent: 

All of the counties except Gotland are predominantly on the Scandinavian mainland.

1. Gotland consists of the island of Gotland and its smaller neighbors, such as Fårö and Gotska Sandön. Gotland is the only county that consists of a single municipality.
2. Jönköping includes Visingsö in Lake Vättern.
3. Kalmar includes Öland.
4. Scania includes Ven island in Øresund sound.
5. Stockholm includes many islands, in both the Baltic Sea and Lake Mälaren. The Baltic islands extend from Torö and Mörkö in the south to Gräsö in the north. The lake islands include Svartsjölandet, Munsö, and Adelsö.
6. Västerbotten includes Ängesön and Holmön.
7. Västra Götaland includes Torsö, Källandsö, and Djurö in Lake Vänern.

Origins of names: 

1. Älvsborg: Old Swedish Eluesborg, from älv: river, ö: mouth, borg: fort
2. Botten (Bothnia): Swedish botten: bottom
3. Gotland: Land of the Goths
4. Jämtland: Land of Jämte (ethnic name)

Change history: 

1. 1637: Västerbotten county split from Västernorrland.
2. 1645: Sweden acquired Gotland, Halland, and Jämtland from Denmark by the Peace of Brömsebro.
3. 1658: Sweden acquired Bohus county, and a guvernement which corresponds to present-day Blekinge and Scåne, from Denmark by the Peace of Roskilde.
4. 1680: Göteborg and Bohus county formed by merging Bohus county and Göteborg city; Kronoberg county split from Småland.
5. 1683: Kalmar county split from a guvernement.
6. 1687: Jönköping county split from Kronoberg.
7. 1714: Blekinge county split from Kalmar; Stockholm county formed from parts of Nyköping and Uppsala; the remainder of Nyköping renamed Södermanland.
8. 1719: Halland county split from a guvernement.
9. 1762: Gävleborg county split from Västernorrland.
10. 1779: Närkes och Värmlands län (Närke and Värmland county) split into Örebro and Värmland.
11. 1809: Kristianstad and Malmöhus counties split from a guvernement.
12. 1810: Jämtland county formed from parts of Gävleborg and Västernorrland; Norrbotten county split from Västerbotten.
13. 1819: Öland county split from Kalmar.
14. 1825: Öland county merged with Kalmar again.
15. 1968-01: Stockholm City merged with Stockholm county. Before the change, Stockholm City had länskod 01, länsbokstav A, FIPS code SW20; Stockholm county had 02, B, and SW19, respectively. Stockholm was the capital of both. This was the first change in the number or identity of primary administrative divisions of Sweden since 1825.
16. 1997-01-01: Kristianstad (ISO=11, lb=L, FIPS=SW11, capital=Kristianstad) and Malmöhus (ISO=12, lb=M, FIPS=SW13, capital=Malmö) counties merged to form Scania. Name of Kopparberg county changed to Dalarna.
17. 1998-01-01: Älvsborg (ISO=15, lb=P, FIPS=SW01, capital=Vänersborg), Göteborg och Bohus (ISO=14, lb=O, FIPS=SW04, capital=Göteborg), and Skaraborg (ISO=16, lb=R, FIPS=SW17, capital=Mariestad) counties merged to form Västra Götaland. Two municipalities (Habo and Mullsjö) transferred from Västra Götaland county to Jönköping.
18. More changes of this sort are planned in the near future.

Other names of subdivisions: 

In the early years of the 20th century, it was common to see e instead of ä, f instead of medial v, and w instead of initial v (Elfsborg, Gefleborg, Wermland, etc.).

1. Dalarna: Dalecarlia (Anglicized); Kopparberg (obsolete)
2. Göteborg: Gothenburg (German)
3. Gotland: Gothland, Gottland (obsolete)
4. Skåne: Scania (Anglicized); Scanie (French)
5. Södermanland: Sörmland (informal)
6. Stockholm: Estocolmo (Portuguese, Spanish); Stoccolmo (Italian)

Population history:

Data for 1895, 1955, and 1976 are estimates.