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Ærø Municipality is a municipality (Danish, kommune) occupying the 88 km island of Ærø in southern Denmark. The municipality belongs to Region of Southern Denmark. The municipality also encompasses Birkholm and the uninhabited islands Lilleø, Dejrø and Halmø.
Map of %C3%86r%C3%B8 Municipality, Denmark
The first mayor of Ærø is Jørgen Otto Jørgensen, a member of the Social Democrats (Socialdemokraterne) political party, until 2005 mayor of Ærøskøbing Municipality. The most populous town is Marstal and the seat of the municipal council is Ærøskøbing.
The municipality was created as a result of Kommunalreformen ("The Municipal Reform" of 2007) on Sunday 1 January 2006, as a union of Marstal and Ærøskøbing municipalities.
The Danish municipal reform was implemented Monday 1 January 2007, but politicians on Ærø were given the go-ahead to unify the island one year ahead of the rest of the municipalities that were merged as a result of the reform.
The result is a municipality with an area of 91 km² and a population today of 6,177 (1 January 2017). In January 1985 8429 people lived on the area of the present municipality, and in January 2006 6873 people. The new municipality belonged to Funen County in 2006 and is part of the new Region of Southern Denmark from 1 January 2007.