Lithuania is divided into three layers of
administrative divisions. The first-level division consists of
10 counties (
Lithuanian: singular – apskritis, plural – apskritys). These are sub-divided into 60 municipalities (Lithuanian: plural – savivaldybės, singular – savivaldybė), which in turn are further sub-divided into over 500 smaller groups, known as
elderships (Lithuanian: plural – seniūnijos, singular – seniūnija).
At the end of its tenure as a Soviet Socialist Republic, Lithuania's administrative divisions consisted of 44 regions, 12 cities, 80 towns, 19 settlements, and 426 rural districts.[1] The reform of this system was an immediate concern for the new government.[2] The
Constitution of Lithuania, ratified in 1992, delegated the power of establishing future administrative units to the Lithuanian Parliament (
Seimas). Accordingly, the Seimas passed two fundamental laws: a 1993 law on government representation and a 1994 law specifying the territorial-administrative units and their boundaries.[2] The current system of a set of municipalities under 10 counties was codified by 1995.[2] Several changes were made in 2000, resulting in 60 municipalities.[3]
Ordinary municipal councilors are elected every four years from electoral lists using proportional representation. The mayor, who used to be a member of the council until 2023,[4] is elected directly by the residents using the
two-round system since 2015 reforms.[5] Before then, the mayors were elected by the municipal councils.
The largest municipality by population in Lithuania is
Vilnius City Municipality with 593,436 residents, home to one fifth (20.7%) of the country's population. The smallest municipality by population is
Neringa Municipality with 4,173 (0.1%) residents.[6]
Municipalities are established to perform certain functions provided by
law. According to the abovementioned Republic of Lithuania Law on Local Self-Government, the functions of
municipalities are "functions related to local government,
public administration and provision of
public services defined by the
Constitution and attributed to municipalities by this and other laws". The processes of integration into
international organizations - like the
EU and NATO - are considered to be important external factors influencing the development of municipal
powers in the country.
Lithuania, which has become a member of these organizations, has been assigned completely new responsibilities, some of which, naturally, also belonged to municipalities. In the case of EU integration, municipalities have been assigned the necessary information supply to the
European Commission, and in the case of integration into
NATO,
municipalities have had new functions related to
security issues.