Odense Municipality () is a Danish municipality (kommune) in Southern Denmark on the island of Funen in central Denmark. The municipality covers an area of , and has a population of 213,168 (1 January 2026).

Municipal council

Below are the municipal councils elected since the Municipal Reform of 2007.

{| class="wikitable"

! rowspan="2"| Election

! colspan="8"| Party

! rowspan="2"| Total<br/>seats

! rowspan="2"| Turnout

! rowspan="2"| Elected<br/>mayor

|-

|style="background:#B5211D;"|Social Democrats (Denmark)|

|style="background:#843A93;"|Danish Social Liberal Party|

|style="background:#89A920;"|Conservative People's Party (Denmark)|

|style="background:#C9096C;"|Socialist People's Party (Denmark)|

|style="background:#F4D44D;"|Danish People's Party|

|style="background:#254C85;"|Venstre (Denmark)|

|style="background:#FF0000;"|Red-Green Alliance (Denmark)|

|style="background:#00FF00;"|The Alternative (Denmark)|

|-

|2005

|10

|1

|11

|2

|1

|2

|2

|style="background:#CDC9C9;" rowspan="3"|

|rowspan="4"|29

|69.4%

|Jan Boye (C)

|-

|2009

|10

|style="background:#CDC9C9;"|

|7

|6

|2

|3

|1

|65.8%

|rowspan="2"|Anker Boye (A)

|-

|2013

|9

|1

|3

|2

|3

|8

|3

|70.5%

|-

|2017

|13

|1

|3

|1

|2

|6

|2

|1

|70.0%

|Peter Rahbæk Juel (A)

|-

|colspan="14"|Data from Kmdvalg.dk 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2017

|}

Mayors

thumb|Anker Boye, former mayor

Odense's mayor is , representing the Social Democrats, since 1 January 2018.

The former mayor of Odense Municipality, Anker Boye, is a member of the Social Democratic Party. His first term was from 1993 to 2005 when he was defeated by Jan Boye, a Conservative. He was re-elected in the 2009 election, forming a coalition with the Red–Green Alliance, the Socialist People's Party and the Social Democrats.

The following is a list of mayors since 1792:

  • Lauritz Martin Bendz (1792–97)
  • Andreas Rosteen Lindved (1798–1816)
  • Lauritz Martin Bendz (1816–24)
  • Christian Reimuth (1824–46)
  • Christen Estrup (1847–60)
  • Louis Mourier (1861–77)
  • G. Koch (1877–97)
  • J.F. Simony (1897–1900)
  • Ludvig Dithmer (1900–11)
  • Valdemar Bloch (1911–19)
  • J.L. Christensen (1919)
  • A.P. Henriksen (1919–25)
  • H. Chr. Petersen (1925–37)
  • I. Vilh. Werner (1937–58)
  • Holger Larsen (1958–73)
  • Verner Dalskov (1973–93)
  • Anker Boye (1994–2005)
  • Jan Boye (2006–09)
  • Anker Boye (2010–2017)
  • Peter Rahbæk Juel (2018–)

Neighbourhoods and settlements

After the city of Odense itself, the next most populous locations in the Municipality are:

{| class="wikitable" style="float:left; margin-right:1em"

|-

| Bellinge || align="center"| 4,900

|-

| Sankt Klemens || align="center"| 3,200

|-

| Fraugde || align="center"| 1,900

|-

| Over Holluf || align="center"| 1,600

|}

{| class="wikitable" style="float:left; margin-right:1em"

|-

| Næsbyhoved-Broby || align="center"| 1,500

|-

| Ejlstrup || align="center"| 1,300

|-

| Lumby || align="center"| 790

|-

| Blommenslyst || align="center"| 530

|}

{| class="wikitable" style="float:left; margin-right:1em"

|-

| Åsum || align="center"| 500

|-

| Fangel || align="center"| 470

|-

| Seden Strand || align="center"| 330

|-

| Brændekilde || align="center"| 318

|}

{| class="wikitable" style="float:left; margin-right:1em"

|-

| Allesø || align="center"| 270

|-

| Davinde || align="center"| 240

|}

The municipality of Odense is divided into 11 different sectors. Neighbourhoods, suburbs and surrounding villages of the city of Odense include:

  • Agedrup
  • Allesø
  • Åløkke
  • Anderup
  • Åsum
  • Blangstedgård
  • Bolbro
  • Bullerup
  • Bellinge
  • Blommenslyst
  • Bregnor
  • Bymidten
  • Dalum
  • Dyrup
  • Elmeluad
  • Ejlstrup
  • Fraugde
  • Fruens Bøge
  • Hauge
  • Hjallese
  • Højby, Funen
  • Højme
  • Højstrup
  • Holmstrup
  • Hunderup
  • Kirkendrup
  • Korsløkke
  • Korup
  • Kragsbjerg
  • Lindved
  • Lumby
  • Marienlund
  • Munkebjerg
  • Neder Holluf
  • Næsby
  • Paarup
  • Rosengård
  • Sanderum
  • Seden
  • Skibhusene
  • Skibhuskvarteret
  • Slukefter
  • Snestrup
  • Søhus
  • Stenløse
  • Stige
  • Tarup
  • Tornbjerg
  • Ubberud
  • Villestofte
  • Vollsmose

The city of Odense

thumb|200px|Saint Canute's Church (Sankt Knuds Kirke) in Odense, Denmark.

Odense is the third largest city in Denmark, and one of country's oldest settlements. The first record of its existence dates from 988 and the town celebrated its 1,000th anniversary in 1988. The name refers to Odin in Norse mythology— Odins Vi ("Odin's Sanctuary"). The shrine of Canute the Saint was a great resort of pilgrims throughout the Middle Ages. His relics are still preserved in Saint Canute's Cathedral. In the 16th century the town was the meeting-place of several parliaments, and down to 1805 it was the seat of the provincial assembly of Funen.

Denmark's famous author and poet Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense on 2 April 1805. Museums honouring him have been created both in a house in the old part of Odense with a large collection of his works and belongings, and his childhood home, which is also located in the city.

Odense also has a museum honouring the classical composer Carl Nielsen, who was born in Nr. Lyndelse near Odense.

Tietgenbyen

thumb|Kompan company building in Odense

Tietgenbyen is a industrial area in Denmark, southeast of Odense near European route E20. It is named after C.F. Tietgen, a businessman from Odense.

It was established in 1999 by Odense Municipality. Businesses had long advocated for an industrial area near the highway. In its early years, Tietgenbyen had difficulty attracting new companies and sold only in 1999 and 2000, but managed to reach its unofficial goal of selling at least within 12 years. In January 2017, it contained 75 companies, and most of its lots had been sold. An area north of Tietgenbyen, known as Tietgenbyen Nord, has been reserved by Odense Municipality for future expansions. The new land is privately owned, and must be bought by the municipality before it can be used industrially. A district heating system is established in connection with the data center, distributing surplus heat to 7,000 houses (planned to be extended to 12,000 houses). Plans to build the data center were first revealed by Fyens Stiftstidende in October 2016, and confirmed by Facebook and Odense municipality in January 2017. The data center is Facebook's third outside the United States. According to Fyens Stiftstidende, Facebook is ready to extend it with a third server building, and is considering adding two more.

Archeological excavations prior to building Tietgenbyen found a number of settlements from the bronze age.

Transportation

The municipality is connected with all points on the island with an extensive system of roads, including the major E20 Funish Motorway (Fynske Motorvej) which runs across the island through the town of Odense and connect the island on the east to the island of Zealand over the Great Belt Bridge and on the west to the Danish mainland, Jutland over the Little Belt Bridge. A motorway built 2006-2009 connects Odense to the island's second-largest city, Svendborg, which also has a railroad connection (Svendborgbanen). The town of Odense is also a major stop on the national railroad system lines.

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See also

  • List of twin towns and sister cities in Denmark

References

Further reading

  • Municipal statistics: NetBorger Kommunefakta, delivered from KMD aka Kommunedata (Municipal Data) and Danmarks Statistik - statistikbanken.dk The Danish Census Bureau
  • Municipal mergers and neighbors: Eniro map with named municipalities
  • Odense tourism bureau
  • List of twin cities and towns
  • Krak searchable/printable map(outline of municipality does not print out!)