Cognised existence: Administrative units are territorial divisions defined by governance acts. They exist because a political authority declared them. Their boundaries determine jurisdiction, statistical aggregation, electoral geography, and service responsibility.
Question: Which administrative area does a location belong to?
What is an Administrative Unit?
An administrative unit is an area with a name, a code, and a polygon boundary that groups other spatial objects (addresses, parcels, people, businesses) for governance purposes. Most countries have nested hierarchies (for example region → municipality → local district), often with parallel divisions for judicial, police, health, or electoral purposes.
Realisations
1. DAGI (Danmarks Administrative Geografiske Inddeling)
DAGI is the authoritative realisation.
Spatial Access Path
All DAGI entities carry direct polygon geometry — no joins needed.
kommune.geometri → municipality boundary (polygon)
region.geometri → region boundary (polygon)
sogn.geometri → parish boundary (polygon)
...etc.
Entity Hierarchy
| Entity | Count | Code | Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| region | 5 | regionskode | Healthcare, spatial planning |
| kommune | 98 | kommunekode | Primary governance unit, most statistics |
| sogn | ~2,200 | sognekode | Church parishes, historical aggregation |
| retskreds | 24 | retskredskode | Judicial districts |
| politikreds | 12 | politikredskode | Police districts |
| opstillingskreds | 92 | — | Electoral constituencies |
| afstemningsomraade | ~1,400 | — | Polling districts (finest electoral unit) |
Key Attributes
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
kommunekode | 4-digit municipality code (the most commonly used key in Danish data) |
regionskode | 4-digit region code |
navn | Name of the administrative unit |
geometri | Polygon boundary |
kommunekode is the universal aggregation key — most Danish registers store it as a foreign key. Point-in-polygon queries against DAGI are the standard way to assign data to municipalities.
2. OpenStreetMap
OSM carries admin_level boundaries for Denmark, with admin_level=4 for regions and admin_level=7 for municipalities.
Spatial access: Direct polygon geometry on boundary=administrative relations.
Classical Theme References
| Standard | Theme | Link |
|---|---|---|
| ISO 19115 | Boundaries | |Boundaries |
| INSPIRE | Administrative Units | |Administrative Units |
Temporal Model
Bitemporal. Municipal mergers (last major reform: 2007) are tracked historically.
Realised By Links
- DAGI (collection)
- GeoDanmark (collection)
Unmatched Realisations
- OpenStreetMap
Realised By Links
- DAGI (collection)
- GeoDanmark (collection)
Unmatched Realisations
- OpenStreetMap