Vas County


Vas is an administrative county of Hungary. It was also one of the counties of the former Kingdom of Hungary. It is part of the Centrope Project.

Geography

Vas county lies in western Hungary. It shares borders with Austria and Slovenia and the Hungarian counties Győr-Moson-Sopron, Veszprém and Zala. The capital of Vas county is Szombathely. Its area is 3,336 km².

History

Vas is also the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is now in western Hungary, eastern Austria and eastern Slovenia. The capital of the county was Szombathely.
Vas county arose as one of the first comitatus of the Kingdom of Hungary.
In 1920, by the Treaty of Trianon the western part of the county became part of the new Austrian land Burgenland, and a smaller part in the southwest, known as Vendvidék became part of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In the Vendvidék in 1919 was founded an unrecognized state the Prekmurje Republic, alike in Burgenland the Lajtabánság. The remainder stayed in Hungary, as the present Hungarian county Vas. After World War II due to Communist reforms, a small part of former Sopron county went to Vas county, some villages north of Zalaegerszeg went to Zala county, and a small region west of Pápa went to Veszprém county.
Since 1991, when Slovenia became independent from Yugoslavia, the Yugoslavian part of former Vas county is part of Slovenia.
The Vas county is home to a small Slovene minority, which lives in the area between the town of Szentgotthárd and the Slovenian border.

Demographics

In 2015, it had a population of 253,997 and the population density was 76/km².
YearCounty populationChange
1949283,070n/a
1960 282,728-0.12%
1970 277,619-1.81%
1980 285,4982.84%
1990 275,944-3.35%
2001 268,123-2.83%
2011 256,629-4.29%

Ethnicity

Besides the Hungarian majority, the main minorities are the Croats, Roma, Germans and Slovenes.
Total population : 256,629

Ethnic groups :
Identified themselves: 225 052 persons:
Approx. 39,000 persons in Vas County did not declare their ethnic group at the 2011 census.

Religion

Religious adherence in the county according to 2011 census:

Politics

The Vas County Council, elected at the 2014 local government elections, is made up of 15 counselors, with the following party composition:

Presidents of the General Assembly

Municipalities

Vas County has 1 urban county, 12 towns and 203 villages.
;City with county rights
;Towns
;Villages