Municipalities of Estonia

Municipalities Of Estonia

A Municipality (Estonian: omavalitsus) is the smallest administrative subdivision of Estonia. Each municipality is a unit of self-government with its representative and executive bodies. The municipalities in Estonia cover the entire territory of the country.

Municipalities in Estonia are of two types: urban municipalities, or towns (Est.: linnad, sg. – linn) and rural municipalities, or parishes (Est.: vallad, sg. – vald). There is no other status distinction between them.

Municipality may contain one or several populated places. Some urban municipalities are divided into districts (Est.: linnaosad, sg. – linnaosa) with limited self-government, e.g. Tallinn consists of 8 districts (Haabersti, Kesklinn, Kristiine, Lasnamäe, Mustamäe, Nõmme, Pirita, Põhja-Tallinn).

Municipalities range in population from Tallinn with 427,500 inhabitants to Ruhnu with 68. As over two-thirds of the municipalities have a population of under 3,000, many of them have found it advantageous to co-operate in providing services and carrying out administrative functions.

Since 2009 there are total of 226 municipalities in Estonia, 34 of them are urban and 193 are rural. The municipalities are listed below, by county: