Lääne County

Lääne County is one of the 15 counties of Estonia, located in the west of the country. Its name in Estonian, Lääne maakond or Läänemaa, means literally Western land, and it was known in German as Wiek and in Latin as Rotalia. The county borders the Baltic Sea to the north, Harju County to the northeast, Rapla County to the east, Pärnu County to the south, and the island counties of Saare and Hiiu to the west. In January 2009 it had a population of 23,810, which was 2.0 percent of the total population of Estonia. It is subdivided into one urban municipality, the town of Haapsalu, and two rural municipalities. Until 2017 the county government was led by a governor appointed by the Government of Estonia for a term of five years, and the Lääne deanery of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church covers congregations across the county.