Vas County

Vas (, ; ; or , ) is an administrative county (comitatus or "megye") of Hungary. It was also one of the counties of the former Kingdom of Hungary. It is part of the Centrope Project.
Geography.
Vas county lies in western Hungary. It shares borders with Austria (Burgenland) and Slovenia (Mura Statistical Region) and the Hungarian counties Győr-Moson-Sopron, Veszprém and Zala. The capital of Vas county is Szombathely. Its area is 3,336 km².
History.
Vas is also the name of a historic administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is now in western Hungary, eastern Austria and eastern Slovenia. The capital of the county was Szombathely.
Vas county arose as one of the first comitatus of the Kingdom of Hungary.
In 1920, by the Treaty of Trianon the western part of the county became part of the new Austrian land Burgenland, and a smaller part in the southwest, known as Vendvidék became part of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later renamed to Yugoslavia). In the Vendvidék in 1919 was founded an unrecognized state the Prekmurje Republic, alike in Burgenland the Lajtabánság. The remainder stayed in Hungary, as the present Hungarian county Vas. After World War II due to Communist reforms, a small part of former Sopron county went to Vas county, some villages north of Zalaegerszeg went to Zala county, and a small region west of Pápa went to Veszprém county.
Since 1991, when Slovenia became independent from Yugoslavia, the Yugoslavian part of former Vas county (around Murska Sobota) is part of Slovenia.
The Vas county is home to a small Slovene minority, which lives in the area between the town of Szentgotthárd and the Slovenian border (see Hungarian Slovenes).
Demographics.
In 2015, it had a population of 253,997 and the population density was 76/km².
Ethnicity.
Besides the Hungarian majority, the main minorities are the Croats (approx. 3,000), Roma (2,500), Germans (2,000) and Slovenes (1,500).
Total population (2011 census): 256,629
Ethnic groups (2011 census):
Identified themselves: 225 052 persons:
Approx. 39,000 persons in Vas County did not declare their ethnic group at the 2011 census.
Religion.
Religious adherence in the county according to 2011 census:
Politics.
The Vas County Council, elected at the 2014 local government elections, is made up of 15 counselors, with the following party composition:
Municipalities.
Vas County has 1 urban county, 12 towns and 203 villages.