Somogy County Explained

Somogy County
Native Name:	Somogy vármegye
Native Name Lang:	hu
Settlement Type:	Counties of Hungary
Subdivision Type:	Country
Subdivision Name:	Hungary
Subdivision Type1:	Region
Subdivision Name1:	Southern Transdanubia
Seat Type:	County seat
Seat:	Kaposvár
Parts Type:	Districts
Parts:	8 districts
P1:	Barcs District
P2:	Csurgó District
P3:	Fonyód District
P4:	Kaposvár District
P5:	Marcali District
P6:	Nagyatád District
P7:	Siófok District
P8:	Tab District
Leader Title:	President of the General Assembly
Leader Name:	Norbert Bíró
Leader Party:	Fidesz-KDNP
Area Total Km2:	6065.07
Area Rank:	5th in Hungary
Population As Of:	2018
Population Total:	303802^[1]
Population Rank:	13th in Hungary
Population Density Km2:	auto
Demographics Type1:	GDP
Demographics1 Footnotes:	^[2]
Demographics1 Title1:	Total
Demographics1 Info1:	HUF 683 billion €2.195 billion (2016)
Postal Code Type:	Postal code
Postal Code:	7253 – 729x, 74xx – 75xx, 7918, 7977 – 7979, 86xx – 873x, 884x – 885x
Area Code Type:	Area code(s)
Area Code:	(+36) 82, 84, 85
Governing Body:	Somogy County Council

Somogy (Hungarian: Somogy vármegye, in Hungarian pronounced as /ˈʃomoɟ/; Croatian: Šomođska županija; Slovenian: Šomodska županija, German: Komitat Schomodei) is an administrative county (comitatus or vármegye) in present Hungary, and also in the former Kingdom of Hungary.

Somogy County lies in south-western Hungary, on the border with Croatia's Koprivnica-Križevci and Virovitica-Podravina counties. It stretches between the river Dráva and the southern shore of Lake Balaton. It shares borders with the Hungarian counties of Zala, Veszprém, Fejér, Tolna, and Baranya. Somogy is the most sparsely populated county in Hungary. The county capital is Kaposvár. Its area is 6,036 km².

History

See main article: Somogy County (former). Somogy was also the name of a historic administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory, which was slightly larger than that of present Somogy County, is now in south-western Hungary. The capital of that county was also Kaposvár.

Demographics

See also: Demographics of Hungary. In 2015, it had a population of 312,084 and the population density was 52/km².

Year	County population^[3]	Change
1949	361,213	n/a
1960	368,183 (record)	1.93%
1970	357,009	-3.03%
1980	360,270	0.91%
1990	344,708	-4.32%
2001	335,237	-2.75%
2011	316,137	-5.70%
2015	312,084	-1.29%
2018	303,802	-2.72%

Ethnicity

Besides the Hungarian majority, the main minorities are the Roma (approx. 16,000), Germans (3,000) and Croats (1,500).

Total population (2011 census): 316,137
Ethnic groups (2011 census):^[4] Identified themselves: 287,692 persons:

Hungarians

265,464 (92,27%)

Romani

16,167 (5,62%)

Germans

3,039 (1,06%)

Others and indefinable: 3,022 (1,05%)

Approx. 46,000 persons in Somogy County did not declare their ethnic group at the 2011 census.

Religion

See also: Religion in Hungary. Religious adherence in the county according to 2011 census:^[5]

Catholic – 168,307 (Roman Catholic – 167,719; Greek Catholic – 546);
Reformed – 21,176;
Evangelical – 5,807;
other religions – 3,829;
Non-religious – 35,503;
Atheism – 3,056;
Undeclared – 78,459.

Regional structure

No.	style=width:175px; align="center"	English and Hungarian names	Area (km²)	Population (2011)	Density (pop./km²)	Seat	No. of municipalities
1	Barcs District Barcsi járás	696.47	23,793	34	Barcs	26
2	Csurgó District Csurgói járás	496.19	16,862	34	Csurgó	18
3	Fonyód District Fonyódi járás	645.44	33,785	52	Fonyód	21
4	Kaposvár District Kaposvári járás	1,591.36	118,496	74	Kaposvár	78
5	Marcali District Marcali járás	904.24	34,472	38	Marcali	37
6	Nagyatád District Nagyatádi járás	647.07	26,003	40	Nagyatád	18
7	Siófok District Siófoki járás	657.05	51,099	78	Siófok	24
8	Tab District Tabi járás	427.24	12,797	30	Tab	24
Somogy County		6,065.07	312,084	52	Kaposvár	245

Politics

The Somogy County Council, elected at the 2019 local government elections, is made up of 15 counselors, with the following party composition:^[6]

	Party	Seats	Current County Assembly
	Fidesz-KDNP	9
	Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik)	3
	Association for Somogy (Somogyért)	2
	Momentum Movement (MM)	1
	Democratic Coalition (DK)	1

Presidents of the General Assembly

List of presidents since 1990^[7]
István Gyenesei (Independent)	1990–1994
István Kolber (MSZP)	1994–1998
István Gyenesei (Somogyért)	1998–2006
Attila Gelencsér (Fidesz-KDNP)	2006–2014
Norbert Bíró (Fidesz-KDNP)	2014–