Editing County (section)

===Sweden===
{{Main|Counties of Sweden}}
[[File:SWE-Map Län.svg|thumb|314x314px|Sweden's counties since 1998.]]
The Swedish division into counties,  {{lang|sv|[[län]]}}, which literally means '[[fief]]', was established in 1634, and was based on an earlier division into [[provinces of Sweden|provinces]]; [[Sweden]] is divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities (''[[Municipalities of Sweden|kommuner]]''). At the county level there is a [[county Administrative Boards of Sweden|county administrative board]] led by a governor appointed by the central [[government of Sweden]], as well as an elected [[county councils of Sweden|county council]] that handles a separate set of issues, notably [[hospital]]s and [[public transportation]] for the [[municipalities of Sweden|municipalities]] within its borders. The counties and their expanse have changed several times, most recently in 1998.

Every county council corresponds to a county with a number of municipalities per county. County councils and municipalities have different roles and separate responsibilities relating to local government. Health care, public transport and certain cultural institutions are administered by county councils while general education, public water utilities, garbage disposal, elderly care and rescue services are administered by the municipalities. [[Gotland]] is a special case of being a county council with only one municipality and the functions of county council and municipality are performed by the same organisation.<ref>Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, [http://skl.se/tjanster/englishpages/municipalitiescountycouncilsandregions.1088.html Municipalities, county councils and regions] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161122153331/http://skl.se/tjanster/englishpages/municipalitiescountycouncilsandregions.1088.html |date=22 November 2016 }}; official translation of the [http://www.regeringen.se/content/1/c4/06/96/34cb7541.pdf Local Government Act] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050220081642/http://www.regeringen.se/content/1/c4/06/96/34cb7541.pdf |date=20 February 2005 }} (''Kommunallagen'');[http://www.sll.se/om-landstinget/Information-in-English1/About-Stockholm-County-Council/ About Stockholm County Council] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160821160842/http://www.sll.se/om-landstinget/Information-in-English1/About-Stockholm-County-Council/ |date=21 August 2016}}</ref>