powiatów

Powiaty to second-level units of territorial administration in Poland, ranking between voivodships and gminy. They encompass areas made up of several neighboring gminy and coordinate public services and development at the regional level. The form powiatów is the genitive plural of powiat and is used when referring to multiple counties, for example in phrases like liczba powiatów or zakres zadań powiatów.

Administrative structure: Powiaty have an elected council (rada powiatu) and an executive body (zarząd powiatu) headed by a starosta. In cities that enjoy county rights (miasta na prawach powiatu), the city government performs functions of both levels, combining tasks traditionally handled by powiat and gmina authorities.

Types: There are traditional land powiats (powiat ziemski) and cities with powiat rights (miasta na prawach powiatu), which function as both a city and a county.

Responsibilities: Powiaty handle tasks that require coordination across several gminy, including education at the secondary level, health care, public transport, maintenance of powiat roads, social welfare, and certain aspects of environmental protection and administrative services.

Relation and numbers: Powiaty are subdivisions of voivodships and are composed of multiple gminy. The exact number of powiaty in Poland changes with administrative reforms; since the 1999 local government reform the system has evolved, and there are several hundred powiatów nationwide.