Copenhagen County in the context of Amt (subnational entity)

The urban area of Copenhagen (also known as Greater Copenhagen) (Danish: Storkøbenhavn or Hovedstadsområdet), lying mostly in the Capital Region of Denmark but also in Region Zealand, consist of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg municipalities and the former Copenhagen County. In all, it consists of 18 municipalities, and except parts of Ballerup, Greve (of former Roskilde County), Ishøj, former Søllerød and former Værløse, mentioned with (the part of) their population included from 2007. Ishøj and Greve Strand are included for the first time since 1999. As of 1 January 2025, this area had a population of 1,396,508. Statistics Denmark states that the definition of the urban area is based on UN's 200m definition.

The Counties of Denmark (Danish: Danmarks amter) were former subdivisions of metropolitan Denmark and overseas territories, used primarily for administrative regions, with each county having its own council with substantial powers. Originally there had been twenty-four counties, but the number was reduced to roughly fourteen in 1970 – the number fluctuated slightly over the next three decades. In 2006 there were thirteen traditional counties as well as three municipalities with county status (the island of Bornholm, which was a county from 1660 until 2002, became a regional municipality with county powers, but only briefly from 2003 until 2006). On 1 January 2007, as a result of the strukturreformen, the counties were abolished and replaced by five larger regions which, unlike the counties, are not municipalities.

Copenhagen County comprised all the municipalities of Metropolitan Copenhagen, except Copenhagen Municipality and Frederiksberg Municipality which, on account of their peculiarity of being outside any of the traditional counties, had the equivalent of "county status". On 1 January 2007 these two municipalities lost their special status.