Local Government Denmark (KL) is the association
and interest organisation of the 98 Danish municipalities.
All of the 98 municipalities have voluntarily decided to be
a part of KL. The mission of KL is to safeguard common
interests of the municipalities, assist individual municipalities
with consultancy services, and ensure that the local
authorities are provided with up-to-date and relevant
information.

A Decentralized Public Sector
In Denmark, the public sector is highly decentralized and
follows the principle of subsidiarity, ‘what can be dealt
with on a local basis is dealt with on a local basis’. Thus,
delivering welfare services in collaboration with citizens,
mobilising resources on a local level, and setting the
direction for the development of local communities is
done at a city-council level.

With the structural public-sector reform of 2007, the
municipalities grew larger and adopted more tasks from
the regional and the state level. Specifically, the municipalities
took over a number of activities regarding environmental
control, adult education, specialised social services, and employment policies. These new areas of municipal responsibilities add to the list of existing responsibilities, such as Health care including rehabilitation, home care, prevention of abuse, dental care, and promotion of health and Social services such as care for elderly and disabled, psychiatric treatment, social psychiatry, placement of neglected children, and specialised education.