At present there are seven Tasmanian councils with 12 members.

In Launceston, there is one alderman per 5349 residents.

There is one alderman per 2051 people in Devonport and one alderman per 4058 Hobart residents.

In Glamorgan-Spring Bay, there are nine councillors serving 4190 people - or one councillor for every 465 people.

Launceston and Hobart aldermen are the state's best-paid, receiving $31,513 a year.

The total wage cost for all of Launceston's elected representatives, including the mayor and deputy mayor, is $477,292 a year.

Councillor numbers for seven councils were reviewed by the Local Government Board last year and councils interested in another review this year have been again invited by the board to submit their interest.

Local Government Minister Bryan Green last October approved board recommendations that Devonport and Central Coast lose three councillors each from their 12-member councils by 2018, and Glenorchy City Council and Kingborough will lose two to become 10-member council.

Launceston, Hobart and Clarence will be the only councils with 12 members when the changes are made.

Clarence and Sorell opened merger discussions last year.

Launceston Mayor Albert van Zetten said the council had decided that 12 aldermen was a sufficient number in 2011.

He said that number provided a broad representation for the state's largest council made up of country and city residents.

Local Government Association of Tasmania president Barry Easther agreed that Launceston's numbers should stay unchanged.

"From what I know, all the aldermen are fairly involved in different parts of their community and work hard," he said.

There are 281 councillors and aldermen in Tasmania - or 1688 per capita.

In comparison, Sydney City Council's 10 councillors represent 169,505 people - or 16,950 per capita - and Melbourne's 11 councillors represent 93,625 people - or 8511 per capita.