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Municipalities of Estonia

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This article is part of the
Subdivisions of Estonia series

Counties

Municipalities

Towns

A Municipality (est: 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 communes (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 are ranging in size from Tallinn with 400 000 inhabitants to Ruhnu with as few as 60. 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 October 2005 there are total of 227 municipalities in Estonia, 34 of them are urban and 193 are rural.

[edit] Structure of local authorities

In each municipality there is a local government as well as a council.

The council (est: volikogu) is a representative body elected by the residents of a municipality for a term of three years. The members of the council elect a chairman (est: volikogu esimees) , who organises the council’s work and represents the municipality.

The government (est: valitsus) is an executive body formed by the council. It is headed by a mayor (est: linnapea in towns, vallavanem in communes), who is appointed for a three-year term. The mayor cannot be the chairman of the council. Other members of the government are chosen by the mayor with the approval of the council.