Norway County elections 2015 — Results

The essentials

Norway's county council elections (fylkestingsvalg) of 14 September 2015 were held on the same day as the municipal elections. The Labour Party finished first with 33.89% of the vote and 257 of the 718 county seats, ahead of the Conservatives (22.01%, 148 seats) and the Progress Party (11.01%, 79). The Centre Party (9.24%) again won more seats (80) than its vote share suggested, reflecting its rural strength. Turnout was 54.8% — lower than the municipal figure, partly because the capital, Oslo, is simultaneously a municipality and a county and so holds no separate county election.

Electoral system

County councillors are elected every four years by party-list proportional representation (modified Sainte-Laguë) within each county (fylke). At the time there were 19 counties, with Oslo excluded from the county tier because it functions as both a municipality and a county in its own right. As in municipal elections, long-term foreign residents may vote.

What the counties do

The county tier is responsible for regional public transport, county roads, upper-secondary schools and public dental services. Because these responsibilities are less visible to voters than the municipal services closest to daily life, county elections consistently draw lower turnout than the municipal contests held on the same day.

The main parties

The county vote featured the same red-green and non-socialist blocs as national politics. Labour led, the Conservatives and Progress Party anchored the right, and the Centre Party's rural dominance again translated into a disproportionate share of seats — the recurring pattern of Norwegian sub-national elections.

Why turnout trails the municipal vote

County turnout of 54.8% sat several points below the municipal figure. Beyond the lower visibility of county services, the arithmetic is also affected by Oslo: as a combined municipality and county, the capital votes only in the municipal election, removing a large bloc of voters from the county totals.

Political context

The 2015 county result mirrored the municipal outcome: the left gained ground two years into Erna Solberg's Conservative-led national government, with the European refugee crisis dominating the final stretch of the campaign. It served, like the municipal vote, as a mid-term barometer of national opinion.

Why it matters

These were among the last county elections before the contentious 2020 regional reform redrew the map, merging the 19 counties into 11. The 2015 councils therefore belonged to the old county structure that the reform — and the backlash against it — would soon transform.

About the data

Norwegian Election Directorate (Valgdirektoratet) — valgresultat.no.

Compiled and reviewed from official results by ElectioMap. See our data methodology.