Pärnu County

Pärnu County (Estonian: Pärnu maakond), or Pärnumaa (German: Kreis Pernau), is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It is situated in south-western part of the country, on the coast of Gulf of Riga, and borders Lääne and Rapla counties to the north, Järva and Viljandi counties to the east, and Latvia to the south. In January 2013 Pärnu County had a population of 81,428 – constituting 6.3% of the total population of Estonia.[1]

Pärnu County
County of Estonia
Coat of arms
CountryEstonia
CapitalPärnu
Government
 • GovernorAndres Metsoja
Area
 • Total4,806.68 km2 (1,855.87 sq mi)
Population
 (Jan 2017[1])
 • Total84,462
 • Rank4th
 • Density18/km2 (46/sq mi)
Ethnicity
 • Estonians89.1%
 • Russians7.6%
 • other3.3%
ISO 3166 codeEE-68
Vehicle registrationF
Websitewww.parnumaa.ee

Pärnu County is the largest county of Estonia in terms of land area.

History

In Pärnu county there is the oldest known human settlement in Estonia, which is the town of Sindi, and it is 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) up the Pärnu River, near the village of Pulli. It dates back to 8500 BCE in the Mesolithic historical period.

County Government

The County Government (Estonian: Maavalitsus) is led by a governor (Estonian: maavanem), who is appointed by the Government of Estonia for a term of five years. Since 1 January 2010, the Governor position is held by Andres Metsoja.

Tourism

The city of Pärnu is a popular holiday resort for Estonians and increasingly for non-Estonians, e.g., from Sweden, Finland, Germany, and Russia.

Municipalities

The county is subdivided into municipalities. There is one urban municipality (Estonian: linnad – towns) and six rural municipalities (Estonian: vallad – parishes) in Pärnu County.

RankMunicipalityTypePopulation
(2018)[2]		Area
km2[2]		Density[2]
1Häädemeeste ParishRural4,98549410.1
2Kihnu ParishRural7021741.3
3Lääneranna ParishRural5,4941,3524.1
4Põhja-Pärnumaa ParishRural8,4351,0138.3
5PärnuUrban51,64985560.4
6Saarde ParishRural4,7221,0654.4
7Tori ParishRural11,69461119.1
Municipalities of Pärnu County (since 2017)

References
  1. "Population by sex, ethnic nationality and County, 1 January". stat.ee. Statistics Estonia. 1 January 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-18.
  2. "Elanike demograafiline jaotus maakonniti". Kohaliku omavalitsuse portaal. Archived from the original on 2 March 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2018.

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