Administrative divisions of Norway

Norway's elongated shape, its numerous internal geographical barriers and the often widely dispersed and separated settlements are all factors that have strongly influenced the structure of the country's administrative subdivisions.

There are three levels of political administration in Norway: As the infrastructure for travel and communication has improved over the years, so the benefits of further consolidation have remained under review.

This office mainly functions as a supervising authority over the county and municipality administrations, and their decisions can be appealed to him.

[citation needed] They are part of the municipal organization, but have a certain amount of influence in issues regarding health, education and naming.

Both Svalbard and Jan Mayen are "part of the Kingdom of Norway", although they are not allocated to a particular county and have not been declared as dependencies.

Norway has three dependent territories (Norwegian: biland), all uninhabited and located in the Southern Hemisphere.

[6] Both Peter I Island and Queen Maud Land are south of 60°S and are thus part of the Antarctic Treaty System.

[7] The dependencies are administration by the Polar Affairs Department of the Ministry of Justice and the Police in Oslo.

Districts (Norwegian: distrikt) represent an unofficial area organized by common language, culture or geographical barriers.

The Norwegian farm culture (bondekultur) that emerged came to serve as a symbol of national resistance to the forced union with Sweden.