Counties of Lithuania
The territory of Lithuania is divided into 10 counties (Lithuanian: apskritys, singular - apskritis), all named after their capitals. The counties are divided into 60 municipalities (Lithuanian: savivaldybės, singular - savivaldybė): 9 city municipalities, 43 district municipalities and 8 municipalities. Each municipality is then divided into elderates (Lithuanian: seniūnijos, singular - seniūnija). Such division was created in 1994 and modified in 2000.
Counties are ruled by apskrities viršininkas (officially translated as "governor") who is appointed by the central government in Vilnius. Their primary duty is to ensure that the municipalities obey the laws and the constitution of Lithuania. They do not have great powers vested in them, and so it is suggested that 10 counties are too much for Lithuania (the smallest county has only 4 municipalities). It is proposed to replace the counties with 4 or 5 lands, a new administrative unit, that would be decided according to the ethnographic regions of Lithuania and based on the 5 major cities.
Modern apskritys should not be confused with apskritys that existed in independent Lithuania during the interwar period. At that time Lithuania had two-step administrative division: apskritys that were subdivided into valsčius. Lithuania now has three-step division: county, municipality, and elderate (apkritys, savivaldybės, and seniūnijos).
List
Map
This map shows counties as well as municipalities. Eight city municipalities and two municipality are marked by numbers:
