Counties of Estonia

The counties (maakond) are the state administrative subdivisions of Estonia. The territory of Estonia is divided into 15 counties, including 13 counties located mostly or entirely on the mainland and 2 counties located entirely on the islands. County governments (maavalitsus) were abolished at the end of 2017, with their duties split between state authorities and local governments, and nowadays counties have no noteworthy independent competences. Counties are composed of municipalities of two types: urban municipalities or towns (linnad), and rural municipalities or parishes (vallad), which are by law required to cooperate in development of their county.