The à ½ilina Region (; ; ) is one of the eight Slovak administrative regions and consists of 11 districts (okresy) and 315 municipalities, from which 18 have a town status. The region was established in 1923, however, in its present borders exists from 1996. It is a more industrial region with several large towns. à ½ilina is the region administrative center and there is a strong cultural environment in Martin.
It is located in northern Slovakia and has an area of kmò. The whole area is mountainous, belonging to the Western Carpathians. Some of the mountain ranges in the region include JavornÃÂky, the Lesser Fatra and the Greater Fatra in the west, Oravská Magura, ChoÃÂské vrchy, Low Tatras and Western Tatras in the east. The whole area is part of the Váh river basin. Its main left tributaries are the Turiec and RajÃÂanka rivers and its right tributaries are Belá, Orava and Kysuca. The national parks on the region's territory are the Lesser, Greater Fatra, Low Tatras and Tatra; landscape protected areas are StrÃ¡à ¾ovské vrchy, Kysuce and Horná Orava. The region borders Preà ¡ov Region in the east, Banská Bystrica Region in the south, TrenÃÂÃÂn Region in the south-west and west, Czech ZlÃÂn Region and Moravian-Silesian regions in the north-west and Polish Silesian and Lesser Poland voivodeships in the north and north-east.
After the fall of Great Moravia in the early 9th century, the area became part of the Kingdom of Hungary in the 11th century practically to 1920. Before the break it was part of the Hungarian counties of Trencsén, Turóc, ÃÂrva and Liptó. After incorporation into Czechoslovakia, the counties continued to exist under their Slovak names of TrenÃÂÃÂn, Turiec, Orava and Liptov, but only to 1923, when they were replaced by (grand) counties ((veþ)à ¾upy) From 1928 it was part of the administrative unit "Slovak Land". During the WWII Slovak Republic, the area was split between TrenÃÂÃÂn and Tatra counties. Since 1928 it was part of the administrative after reincorporation into Czechoslovakia in 1945, the pre-war state was restored. In 1949-1960 there was a unit with the name à ½ilina Region but it was abolished in 1960 and the area became part of new Central Slovak Region, of which it was part until 1990 (except 1969-70) when it was abolished. After the independence of Slovakia in 1993, the current region was established in 1996. Since the administrative regions became autonomous in 2002, it is governed by the à ½ilina Self-Governing Region.
It has a population ofàpeople (31 December ). The population density in the region is (). The largest towns are à ½ilina, Martin, Liptovský MikulÃ¡à ¡, Ruà ¾omberok, ÃÂadca and Dolný KubÃÂn.
From the stagnation in the 1990s the region now enjoys relative prosperity. The main employers are industry and tourism. The river Váh valley, which runs across the entire region, forms a strong industrial base with wood pulp and engineering factories as well as Volkswagen and Kia plants in à ½ilina and Martin.
Current governor of à ½ilina region is Erika Jurinová (OýaNO) - first woman in this office in Slovakia. She won with 32 %. In election 2022 was elected also to the regional parliament :
Parliamentary groups were formed after the elections. Their status in August 2022 is as follows :
The region is divided into 11 districts. There are 315 municipalities in the region of which 18 are towns.