Esbjerg Municipality

Esbjerg Municipality (Danish: Esbjerg Kommune, Danish pronunciation: [ˈesˌpjɛɐ̯ˀ]) is a kommune in the Region of Southern Denmark on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. Its mayor is Jesper Frost Rasmussen, from the Venstre (Center-Right Party) political party. By 1 January 2007, the old Esbjerg municipality was, as the result of Kommunalreformen ("The Municipal Reform" of 2007), merged with the former Bramming and Ribe and a small part of Helle municipalities to form the new Esbjerg municipality. This municipality has an area of 741 km² (286 sq. miles) and a total population of 115,423 (2024).

Esbjerg Municipality Esbjerg Kommune (Danish)
Municipality
Coat of arms
Coordinates: 55°28′00″N 8°27′00″E
Country	Denmark
Region	Southern Denmark
Seat	Esbjerg
Government
• Mayor	Jesper Frost Rasmussen
Area
• Total	742.5 km2 (286.7 sq mi)
Population  (1. January 2024)[1]
• Total	115,423
• Density	160/km2 (400/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC2 (CEST)
Website	www.esbjergkommune.dk

Overview

The main town and the site of its municipal council is the city of Esbjerg, the fifth largest city in Denmark.

Neighboring municipalities with land connection are Tønder to the south, Haderslev to the southeast, Vejen to the east, and Varde to the north. The neighboring municipality to the west is Fanø, an island municipality located in Fanø Bay (Fanø Bugt). Beyond the island of Fanø and Fanø Bay is the North Sea.

Locations

Esbjerg	72,000
Ribe	8,400
Bramming	7,200
Tjæreborg	2,900
Gørding	1,700
Tarp	1,700
Andrup	1,300
Egebæk	1,200
Gredstedbro	1,100

Infrastructure

Rail

Esbjerg Municipality has 13 railway stations, which forms a dense network, compared to other municipalities in Denmark, despite its many rural towns.

List of stations in Esbjerg Municipality^[2]

	Station	Departing Passengers	Departing trains	Largest destination
1	Esbjerg	753,060	32,736	Bramming
2	Bramming	252,685	45,508	Esbjerg
3	Ribe	127,894	15,135	Esbjerg
4	Spangsbjerg	50,724	19,971	Varde
5	Jerne	45,130	19,973
6	Gjesing	44,818	19,969	Varde
7	Hviding	41,063	10,561	Esbjerg
8	Tjæreborg	30,790	19,969	Esbjerg
9	Ribe Nørremark	29,911	19,977	Esbjerg
10	Gredstedbro	23,869	19,977	Ribe
11	Gørding	21,731	14,336	Esbjerg
12	Guldager	9,829	19,969	Esbjerg
13	Sejstrup	8,861	19,977	Esbjerg

Politics

Esbjerg's municipal council consists of 31 members, elected every four years. The municipal council has seven political committees.^[3]

Municipal council

Below are the municipal councils elected since the Municipal Reform of 2007.

Election	Party									Total seats	Turnout	Elected mayor
	A	B	C	D	E	F	O	V	Ø
2005	10	1	1			3	1	15		31	65.8%	Johnny Søtrup (V)
2009	10		1			5	2	13			61.3%
2013	9		1			2	2	15	2		68.9%
2017	11	1	1		1	2	3	11	1		69.1%	Jesper Frost Rasmussen (V)
2021	9	1	3	1		3	1	13			64.2%
Data from Kmdvalg.dk 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017 and 2021

Twin towns – sister cities

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Denmark

Esbjerg is twinned with:^[4]

• Eskilstuna, Sweden
• Fjarðabyggð, Iceland
• Jyväskylä, Finland
• Qeqqata, Greenland
• Stavanger, Norway
• Suzhou, China
• Szczecin, Poland
• Tórshavn, Faroe Islands

References

1. BY2: Population 1. January by municipalities The Mobile Statbank from Statistics Denmark
2. "ArcGIS Dashboards". www.arcgis.com. Retrieved 2023-03-04.
3. Politiske råd og udvalg
4. "Venskabsbyer". esbjerg.dk (in Danish). Esbjerg Kommune. Retrieved 2021-04-14.

• Municipal statistics: NetBorger Kommunefakta, delivered from KMD aka Kommunedata (Municipal Data)
• Municipal mergers and neighbors: Eniro new municipalities map

External links

• Esbjerg's official information portal
• Esbjerg municipality's official website
• The new Esbjerg municipality's official website (Danish only) Archived 2014-12-18 at the Wayback Machine
• Esbjerg Tourism Bureau's website
• SDU Esbjerg
• AAU Esbjerg Archived 2020-03-26 at the Wayback Machine
• The Peace movement of Esbjerg