On the 1st January 1999, an administrative reform of Poland came into force. It created two new tiers of local self-government, one of results of which was a change in the number, borders and names of regions. Thus the self-governing Malopolska Region was created. It incorporated what before the reform used to be the Krakow Region and the Nowy Sacz Region, as well as parts of the Bielsko-Biala, Kielce, Katowice, Krosno and Tarnów Regions.   
   Since then, the region authorities are elected by the residents in direct elections. The same goes for districts (Polish: "powiat") - the second level of local self-government created at the time of the reform. Soon after the new region had been established, its authorities passed acts of law describing the coat of arms and the flag of Malopolska, deriving them from the historical traditions of the Region.
   From the administrative point of view, the Malopolska Region is divided into 22 districts and 182 communes (Polish: "gmina"). It includes 57 cities and 2630 villages.