Editing Counties of Sweden (section)

== Proposed regions ==
[[File:SWE-Regioner.svg|thumb|190px|Six or nine new administrative regions.]]
Under the aegis of the [[Swedish government]], ''Ansvarskommittén'' has been investigating the possibilities of merging the current 21 counties into 6 to 9 larger regions. These proposals are from their final report, delivered in 2007:<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.regeringen.se/rattsliga-dokument/statens-offentliga-utredningar/2007/03/sou-200713-/|title=Regional utveckling och regional samhällsorganisation|date=2007-03-23|website=Government Offices of Sweden|language=sv|id=SOU 2007:13}}</ref>
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# ''Norra Sverige'': [[Norrbotten County]] + [[Västerbotten County]] + [[Jämtland County]] + [[Västernorrland County]] + [[Nordanstig Municipality|Nordanstig]] and [[Hudiksvall Municipality|Hudiksvall]]
# ''Bergslagen'': the rest of [[Gävleborg County]] + [[Dalarna County]] + [[Örebro County]] + [[Värmland County]]
# ''Mälardalen'': [[Stockholm County]] + [[Uppsala County]] + [[Södermanland County]] + [[Västmanland County]] + [[Gotland County]]
# ''Västra Götaland'': [[Västra Götaland County]] + [[Halland County]]
# ''Östra Götaland'': [[Östergötland County]] + [[Jönköping County]] + [[Kronoberg County]] + [[Kalmar County]]
# ''Södra Götaland'': [[Skåne County]] + [[Blekinge County]]
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# ''Norra Sverige'': [[Norrbotten County]] + [[Västerbotten County]] + [[Örnsköldsvik Municipality|Örnsköldsvik]]
# ''Mellannorrland'': [[Jämtland County]] + [[Västernorrland County]] (except Örnsköldsvik) + [[Nordanstig Municipality|Nordanstig]] and [[Hudiksvall Municipality|Hudiksvall]]
# ''Dalarna-Gävleborg'': [[Dalarna County]] + [[Gävleborg County]] (except Nordanstig and Hudiksvall)
# ''Västra Svealand'': [[Värmland County]] + [[Örebro County]]
# ''Mälardalen'': [[Stockholm County]] + [[Uppsala County]] + [[Södermanland County]] + [[Västmanland County]] + [[Gotland County]]
# ''Västra Götaland'': [[Västra Götaland County]] + [[Halland County]]
# ''Östergötland'': [[Östergötland County]] + [[Västervik Municipality|Västervik]]
# ''Småland'': [[Jönköping County]] + [[Kronoberg County]] + [[Kalmar County]] (except Västervik)
# ''Södra Götaland'': [[Skåne County]] + [[Blekinge County]]
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A model for this comes from the merger of some counties into [[Skåne County]] and [[Västra Götaland County]] in 1997 and 1998, respectively, which is now considered a success.

The counties are discussing the proposal. An obstacle is that [[Stockholm County]] does not want to merge with any other county, while its neighbours want to merge with Stockholm.
After this discussion the following proposal has in 2016 emerged:
# Norrbotten, Västerbotten, Västernorrland and Jämtland county
# Dalarna, Gävleborgs, Södermanlands, Uppsala, Västmanland and Örebro county
# Östergötland, Jönköping, Kalmar and Kronoberg county
# Gotland and Stockholm county
# Halland, Värmland and Västra Götaland county
# Blekinge and Skåne county
The main difference is that the proposed Bergslagen is divided to other counties, and Stockholm is on its own (plus the small Gotland which has air connections to Stockholm)