Esbjerg Municipality is a municipality (Danish, kommune) in Region of Southern Denmark on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. Its mayor is Johnny Søtrup, from the Venstre (Center-Right Party) political party. By 1 January 2007, the old Esbjerg municipality was, as the result of Kommunalreformen ("The Municipal Reform" of 2007), merged with the former Bramming and Ribe municipalities to form the new Esbjerg municipality. This municipality has an area of 741 km² (286 sq. miles) and a total population of 114,244 (2008).