A country in Northern Europe. Estonia has land borders to the south with Latvia and to the east with Russia. It is separated from Finland in the north by the Gulf of Finland and from Sweden in the west by the Baltic Sea. Estonia is divided into 15 counties. (maakonnad; sing. - maakond). Estonian counties are divided into rural (vallad, singular vald) and urban (linnad, singular linn; alevid, singular alev; alevikud, singular alevik) municipalities. The municipalities comprise populated places (asula or asustusuksus) - various settlements and territorial units that have no administrative function. A group of populated places form a rural municipality with local administration. Most towns constitute separate urban municipalities, while some have joined with surrounding rural municipalities.