Aarhus City Council (
Aarhus Byråd) is also the municipal government. The city council consists of 31 members elected for four-year terms. Administratively the municipality is divided into six minor agencies which together constitute the
magistrate led by a mayor and five aldermen as administrative directors. It is the only Danish city with a magistrate structure. The six departments of the city are the ''Mayor's Department
, Social Affairs and Employment
, Technical Services and Environment
, Health and Care
, Culture and Citizens Services
and Children and Young People'' which handle all the day-to-day operations of the city. The current
mayor of Aarhus municipality is
Jacob Bundsgaard of the
Social Democrats, who took over after
Nicolai Wammen in August 2011, with Wammen wanting to focus on the upcoming election for Parliament. Politically Aarhus leans
left and the largest political party has historically been the
Social Democratic Party which has also held the mayor's office for all terms with the notable exception of the 2001–2005 term when Louise Gade of
Venstre became both the first female and non-Social Democratic mayor. The gender composition of the city council has risen steadily in favour of women through the 20th century and currently 9 of 31 members are women. The first publicly elected mayor of Aarhus was appointed in 1919. In the
1970 Danish Municipal Reform the current Aarhus municipality was created by merging 20 municipalities. Aarhus (from 1948 to 2011 spelled Århus) was the seat of
Århus County (spelled Århus all the years it existed) until the 2007 Danish municipal reform, which substituted the Danish counties with five regions and made the former Århus County a part of
Central Denmark Region (
Region Midtjylland), seated in
Viborg.
Municipal council Aarhus' municipal council consists of 31 members, elected every four years. Below are the municipal councils elected since the
Municipal Reform of 1970.
Districts and subdivisions of districts in
Aarhus municipality and neighbourhoods in
Midtbyen Aarhus Municipality has 45
electoral wards and
polling stations in four
electoral districts for the
folketing. The
diocese of Aarhus has four
deaneries composed of 60
parishes within Aarhus municipality. Aarhus municipality contains 21
postal districts and some parts of another 9. The urban area of Aarhus and the immediate suburbs are divided into the districts
Aarhus C,
Aarhus N,
Aarhus V,
Viby J,
Højbjerg and
Brabrand. Aarhus is segmented into districts on different levels often containing several distinct neighbourhoods within them. The historical centre, known as
Indre By (lit.
English, "Inner City"), includes the neighbourhoods
Centralværkstedet, the
Latin Quarter and the areas around the
Central Station and
Aarhus Concert Hall. The inner city beltway
Ring 1 contains the larger district
Midtbyen (lit. Town Centre), roughly equivalent to postal district Aarhus C, and is composed of the neighbourhoods Indre By,
Vesterbro,
Frederiksbjerg,
Aarhus Ø,
Marselisborg and
Nørre Stenbro. North of the inner beltway lies the district Aarhus N, containing the neighbourhoods
Trøjborg,
Risskov,
Vejlby,
Skejby,
Christiansbjerg and Vorrevangen and to the west lies
Langenæs,
Åbyhøj and Aarhus V, comprising the neighbourhoods
Hasle,
Frydenlund, Herredsvang and Møllevangen, while the district of
Højbjerg lies to the south. Districts and suburbs further out are
Brabrand,
Egå,
Gellerup,
Hasselager,
Holme,
Kolt,
Rosenhøj,
Skødstrup,
Skæring,
Skåde,
Slet,
Stavtrup,
Tilst and
Tranbjerg. == Cities and towns ==