Municipalities on the Faroe Islands

Currently, there are 29 municipalities in the Faroe Islands. Over 40 % of the inhabitants live in Tórshavnar Kommuna, while the two smallest municipalities have only 38 and 41 permanent residents. The distinctive municipal structure reflects a historical development in local communities with strong local affiliations, which have defied the national authorities’ aim to reduce the number of municipalities to between seven and nine.

Historical background of the municipalities and their establishment

The municipalities serve several functions: Firstly, the local community needs an arena to resolve local interest disputes. The roots of the Faroese municipalities can be found in the old villages’ medieval systems of government. The system of so-called grannastevna is still used to some extent in connection with the regulation of the villages’ common natural resources, etc. This is done according to rules and procedures laid down in Seyðabrævið from 1298, the Faroe Islands’ first and fundamental court records. Secondly, the central government needs to supervise the local communities. After the Reformation, the vicars became the auxiliary arm of the state; each of the 39 churches constituted a parish, which was distributed among the seven superior parishes. Thirdly, local democracy in contemporary society has led to demands and obligations regarding infrastructure and welfare, which make municipalities dependent on their own tax revenue as well as subsidies from national authorities to cover investment and operating expenses.

The first steps towards the modernisation of local self-government and local administration came with the Act on Poor Relief in the Faroe Islands from 1855. Accordingly, the seven parishes and Tórshavn were to have a governorship. The same structure was used for the municipalities, which were established a few years later on the initiative of the Løgting (the national parliament).

In 1866, the Act on the Town of Thorshavn’s Financial Administration was passed, which said that the ‘Administrative Officer and the Town’s Representatives should Jointly’ undertake management of the town. In 1908 came the Act on the Town of Thorshavn’s Municipal Government; now all members of the town council had to be elected.

The rest of the country was divided into seven municipalities according to an act from 1872. In the opinion of the Løgting, the starting point should be the 39 small parishes rather than the seven superior parishes (prestagjald), but in Copenhagen it was believed that the units would be too small. As a compromise, the governorships, consisting of five to nine members, were to have at least one representative from each parish, and each of the 39 parishes was to be an independent financial unit, managed by a parish commission.

An important background for the Løgting’s desire to establish municipalities was the introduction of compulsory schooling. Other special tasks included infrastructure, and the first many years were characterised by investments in port facilities and road construction, but also in the construction of school buildings and churches. Danish state aid (later Faroese national aid) to realise construction projects could provide a welcome extra income for the municipality’s residents. On the other hand, it was not popular if projects which only benefited one village entailed taxation of the entire municipality, or if the governorship of poor local communities imposed compulsory work distributed between the villages. This led to the establishment of new municipalities, and the first breakaway municipality was Nólsoy in 1876. In the year 1900, the original seven municipalities had turned into 15, and the number continued to rise to 51 in the years 1967‑76, when it was at its peak. The changes in the municipal structure are reflected in the terminology: The ‘governorship’ stipulated in the Municipal Act became ‘parish council’ in popular parlance.

Cross-municipal collaborations and amalgamations

In 1966, a committee was set up to revise the Municipal Act. Much had changed. The population had almost quadrupled, from 9,992 in 1870 to 38,433 in 1970. Money economy had more or less replaced the former subsistence economy, and more towns and new villages had emerged. Since 1948, the home rule had had overall responsibility for the municipal sector and for areas of interest to the municipalities, e.g. roads, ports, electricity and telephone. There was a shortage of labour, and welfare institutions such as kindergartens and nursing homes were needed to free the women from unpaid care work so that they could enter the labour market. These increased demands led to new cross-municipal collaborations within schools, childcare, elderly care, refuse collection services, electricity, etc. Since 1967, the common interests of the municipalities have been taken care of through a joint national association, which is now called Kommunufelagið.

The national authorities wanted the new Municipal Act from 1972 to lead to fewer municipalities, but at the turn of the millennium there were still 48 municipalities. Many of these had actively supported the local business community, and this was considered to be one of the explanations for the economic crisis of the early 1990s. A new act from 1993 therefore placed limits on the municipalities’ freedom with regard to how municipal funds were allocated. Furthermore, an investigation from 1995 on the municipal structure and administration and the division of tasks between the state and the municipalities formed the basis for a new municipal act in 2001. The goal was now seven to nine municipalities, but the Løgting still only wanted voluntary amalgamations of municipalities.

At the municipal elections in 2004, the number of municipalities was reduced to 34, and in 2008 to 30. Tórshavn, Klaksvík and Runavík incorporated small neighbouring municipalities, while Eystur, Vága and Sunda Kommunar are new municipalities that were formed by merging municipalities that were roughly the same size. In the rest of the country, the municipal structure remained unchanged. The national administration argued that the national authorities could accelerate the process, but the members of the Løgting did not want to force mergers through against the wishes of the voters. In 2011, the Minister for the Interior tried to get a clarification by calling a referendum, but the turnout was only 32.7 %. In only nine of the municipalities did voters say yes to amalgamation, in six cases for their own municipality to become larger (Tórshavn’s voters were not among these), while in three municipalities, there was a small majority for what can be interpreted as a wish to dissolve their own municipality. In 2017, a single municipality disappeared from the map, so in 2021, the number was down to 29. The municipality, which was dissolved, had 39 inhabitants, and was not among the municipalities that had agreed to an amalgamation in 2012.

The municipal councils

The number of members in the municipal councils varies from 13 in Tórshavn to three in the smallest municipalities. The support for municipal elections is great, and the requirement that actual elections must be held, meaning that there must be two candidates more than the number of seats in the municipal council, is met. In the smallest municipalities, it has sometimes been necessary to nominate candidates against their will, but in most municipalities, the seats are contested and the turnout is high. In 2020, it varied from 81.1 % in Tórshavn to 94.7 % in Fugloy, and the average turnout for all eligible voters was 83 %.

Strong wishes to be elected are reflected in the gender distribution. Although women became eligible for municipal elections in 1908, and the first woman was elected in Tvøroyri in 1918, the proportion of women in municipal councils was only 5 % in 1984. In 1956, the first woman was elected to Tórshavn’s town council, but during the period 1960‑84, the same town council had no female members. Representation in the municipal councils became a goal for the women’s movement, which in some municipalities choose to nominate women on special women’s lists. The strategy was particularly successful in municipalities without lists from the established parties, and Vestmanna became the beacon when a women’s list gained a representative in 1976 and had a majority during the period 1992‑2004. This political mobilisation resulted in an increase from only 5 % (a total of 14 women) in 1984 to 11.5 % (33 women) in 1988. Since then, the proportion of women in municipal councils has gradually increased, and in the last two elections there have been no indications that voters prefer male to female candidates. However, the lower number of municipalities has led to political demobilisation, particularly among male candidates. The fact that the proportion of women is now 36 % can be ascribed to the efforts of the women’s movement and Demokratia, a public committee established in 2005 to increase the proportion of women in Faroese politics.

The tasks of the municipalities

Based on their knowledge of local needs and wishes, the municipal councils must make decisions about land use, investments and services for the local population. Tasks mandated by Løgting acts include spatial planning and building regulations, first-line preparedness in the event of fire, pollution, natural disasters etc., infrastructure (water, refuse collection, roads, port facilities, power supply), municipal buildings for primary schools, medical offices etc., central public supervisory tasks, such as child welfare and social institutions, e.g. daycare centres, and since 2014 also elderly care.

In order to be able to carry out the resource-intensive tasks, intermunicipal collaboration is extensively used: These are often facilitated by the municipalities’ joint national organisation, Kommunufelagið. These include collaborations on e.g. electricity supply (SEV), elderly care and child welfare as well as other types of tasks that the municipalities institute. Tasks within the cultural sector are not required by law, but many municipalities choose to invest in culture and leisure, especially sports facilities.

Responsibility for the primary school is shared between the national authorities and the municipalities. In 2009, plans were made to transfer the entire responsibility for the primary school to the municipalities, but the prerequisite was a series of municipal amalgamations, which were not carried out.

The municipalities’ primary source of income is municipal tax. While the national tax is progressive, the municipal councils set a percentage in connection with the annual budget resolutions, which applies to all the municipality’s residents. It can vary between 16 and 24 % of the taxable income, i.e. income after a basic personal allowance of DKK 30,000 and child allowance of DKK 5,000‑10,000. In 2021, Fugloyar Kommuna had the lowest possible percentage and the highest child allowance, while Vága Kommuna topped the table with a municipal tax of 22 % and at the same time only DKK 5,500 in child allowance; in Tórshavnar Kommuna, the municipal tax is 19 %, and the child allowance is DKK 8,000.

The municipalities have the disposal of their income under the supervision of the Faroese Government’s Ministry of the Interior. There is no equalisation between rich and poor municipalities.

Further reading

• Agriculture on the Faroe Islands
• Bakkafrost
• Education and research on the Faroe Islands
• Energy supply on the Faroe Islands
• Government and constitution on the Faroe Islands
• Health and care on the Faroe Islands
• Hiddenfjord
• Industry and labour market on the Faroe Islands
• Politics and plans on the Faroe Islands
• Population and housing on the Faroe Islands
• Restaurant KOKS
• Salmon farming on the Faroe Islands
• Salt on the Faroe Islands
• Shipping Company Varðin
• The fishing industry on the Faroe Islands
• Veltan
• Wind Turbines on the Faroe Islands

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