Sveio

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Sveio kommune
—  Municipality  —
Coat of arms Hordaland within Norway
Sveio within Hordaland
Coordinates: 59°34′25″N 5°21′48″E / 59.57361, 5.36333
Country	Norway
County	Hordaland
District	Haugaland
Municipality ID	NO-1216
Administrative centre	Sveio
Government
- Mayor (2003)	Jorunn Skåden (Ap)
Area (Nr. 306 in Norway)
- Total	246 km² (95 sq mi)
- Land	224 km² (86.5 sq mi)
Population (2004)
- Total	4,687
- Density	21/km² (54.4/sq mi)
- Change (10 years)	1.1 %
- Rank in Norway	203
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
- Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Official language form	Nynorsk
Data from Statistics Norway
Website: www.sveio.kommune.no

Sveio is a municipality in the southern part of the county of Hordaland, Norway.

Sveio was separated from Finnås in 1861. Vikebygd was separated from Sveio January 1, 1902. Valestrand (and the western part of Vikebygd) was merged with Sveio January 1, 1964.

[edit] The name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the farm Sveio (Norse Sviða), since the first church was built there. The name is identical with the word sviða f 'clearing made by burning'.

Until 1912 the name was written "Sveen".^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from 1982, but is based upon the coat-of-arms of a medieval nobleman from the district.^{[citation needed]}

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