- List of cities in Norway
This is a list of cities in
Norway .The Norwegian name for
city is "by". Cities were formerly categorized as "kjøpstad" (market town) or "ladested" (small seaport),cite paper | author=Statistics Norway | title=About the statistics: Population changes in municipalities 1951-1999 | date=2003 | url=http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/02/02/folkendrhist_en/about.html] each with special rights. The special trading rights for cities had been abolished in 1857, and the classification was entirely rescinded in 1952 and replaced by the simple classification "by".From
1 January 1965 the focus were moved from the individual cities to their corresponding municipalities. Norwegian municipalities were classified as "bykommune" (urban municipality) or "herredskommune" (rural municipality). The distinction was rescinded by The Local Government Act of 1992. The municipalities were ordered by so-called municipality numbers, four-digit codes based on which in 1946 were assigned to each municipality. Urban municipalities got a municipality number in which the third digit was a zero.b]Between 1960 and 1965 many Norwegian municipalities were merged. For instance when the urban municipality
Brevik merged with the urban municipalityPorsgrunn and the rural municipalityEidanger , the new municipality was called Porsgrunn and retained its municipality number. As a result, Brevik was considered an urban municipality/town no longer. On another note, when the urban municipalityHønefoss was merged with the rural municipalities Hole,Norderhov ,Tyristrand andÅdal to form the new municipalityRingerike , Ringerike retained the old municipality number of Hønefoss. [cite paper | author=Dag Jukvam / Statistics Norway | title=Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen | date=1999 | url=http://www.ssb.no/emner/00/90/rapp_9913/rapp_9913.pdfl] The same thing happened toEgersund andFlorø .Before 1996 city status was awarded by the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development. Now the issue is decided by each municipality council and formally accepted by the state. Since 1997 a municipality must have a minimum of 5,000 inhabitants in order to declare city status for one of its settlements. In 1999 the municipality council of
Bardu declared city status forSetermoen , only to be rejected because the municipality fell short of the population limit. One exception isHonningsvåg inNordkapp , where the municipality actually has less than 5,000 inhabitants but declared city status before the limit was implemented by law in 1997. [cite paper | author=Kommunal Rapport| title=Byer i Norge | date=23 June 2005 | url=http://www.kommunal-rapport.no/index.db2?id=3725]Because of the new laws, Norway witnessed a rapid rise in the number of cities after 1996 . Interestingly, a number of relatively small settlements are now called "by", such as
Brekstad with 1,828 inhabitants andKolvereid with 1,448 inhabitants.Population count applies to the "tettsted" (urban settlement), which is a continuous built-up area with less than 50 metres between the houses. cite paper | author=Statistics Norway | title=Urban settlements. Population and area, by municipality. 1 January 2007 | date=2007 | url=http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/02/01/10/beftett_en/tab-2007-06-07-01-en.html] Among the cities of today which got this status before 1996,Tvedestrand with 1,983b] inhabitants is the smallest. On another note, the laws of 1996 allowed some settlements which lost their city status in the 1960s to regain it.Oslo , founded in year1000 , is the largest city in Norway as well as the capital.Cities in Norway
ee also
*
List of cities in Norway by population
*Lists of villages in Norway Notes and references
*cite news |first=Tron |last=Soot-Ryen |title=Norges nye byer |url=http://www.nrk.no/programmer/radio/norgesglasset/5727491.html |work=NRK P1 |date=28 June 2006 |language=Norwegian |accessdate=2007-07-04
External links
* [http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/europe/norway.gifMap with Norwegian cities]
* City Population: Norway (statistics & map)- [http://www.citypopulation.de/Norway.html Municipalities] & [http://www.citypopulation.de/Norway-UA.html Urban Settlements]
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