Møre og Romsdal

Møre og Romsdal fylke
—  County  —

Coat of arms
Møre og Romsdal within Norway
Country Norway
County Møre og Romsdal
Region Vestlandet
County ID NO-15
Official language form Nynorsk[1]
Demonym Møringer or Romsdalinger
Administrative centre Molde
Government
 • Governor Lodve Solholm
  ...
  (2009–present)
 • County mayor Olav Bratland
  Høyre
  (2007–present)
Area(#11 in Norway, 4.79% of Norway's land area)
 • Total 15,121 km2 (5,838.3 sq mi)
 • Land 14,590 km2 (5,633.2 sq mi)
Population (2008)
 • Total 258,500
 • Density 17.1/km2 (44.3/sq mi)
 • Change (10 years) 2.0 %
 • Rank in Norway 8 (5.24% of country)
Time zone CET (UTC+01)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+02)
Income (per capita) 139,200 NOK
GDP (per capita) 243,412 NOK (2001)
National Rank: 6 (3.89% of country)
Website www.mrfylke.no
Data from Statistics Norway
Historical populations
Year Pop. ±%
1951 191,621
1961 213,286 +11.3%
1971 223,709 +4.9%
1981 236,062 +5.5%
1991 238,278 +0.9%
2001 243,810 +2.3%
2011 253,904 +4.1%
2021? 282,661 +11.3%
2031? 303,810 +7.5%
Source: Statistics Norway[2].[1]
Religion in Møre og Romsdal[2][3]
religion percent
Christianity
  
90.23%
Islam
  
0.39%
Buddhism
  
0.12%
Other
  
9.26%
is a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway. It borders the counties of Sør-Trøndelag, Oppland and Sogn og Fjordane. The county administration is located in Molde, while Ålesund is the largest city.

Contents

The name

The name Møre og Romsdal was created in 1936. The first element refers to the districts of Nordmøre and Sunnmøre, and the last element refers to Romsdal. Until 1919, the county was called "Romsdal amt", and from 1919-1935 "Møre fylke".

For the meanings of the names see Diocese of Møre and Romsdal.

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from 1978. It shows three Viking ships (where the masts and the yards creates three crosses). The number of three represents the three districts of the county: Sunnmøre, Romsdal and Nordmøre.

History

Ragnvald Eysteinsson, earl of Møre until 890 and the founder of the Earldom of Orkney. Ragnvald might also have been the father of Rollo of Normandy.

Geography

Traditionally, the county has been divided into three districts. From north to south, these are Nordmøre, Romsdal and Sunnmøre. Although the districts do not have separate governments and despite modern road, sea and air connections throughout the county, the three districts still have their own identities in many ways. Historically speaking, connections have been stronger between Nordmøre and Sør-Trøndelag to the north, Romsdal and Oppland to the east, and Sunnmøre and Sogn og Fjordane to the south, than internally. Differences in dialects between the three districts bear clear evidence of this. Due to geographical features, the county has many populated islands and is intersected by several deep fjords. Due to its difficult terrain, Møre og Romsdal has been very dependent on boat traffic, and its main car ferry company, MRF, has existed since 1921.

Settlements

Møre og Romsdal has six settlements with city status. The largest three were cities before 1993 when municipalities were allowed to grant city status which led to an increase in the number of cities. The county contains multiple other urban settlements (as defined by Statistics Norway) without city status, every municipality except for Halsa and Smøla containing at least one. As of 1 January 2009, 166,374 people (66.8 percent of the population) lived in an urban settlement.[4] The population density is highest near the coast, with all of the county's cities located on saltwater.

The largest city in the county is Ålesund, with a population of 42,317 in the municipality and 46,471 in the agglomeration which it forms together with parts of Sula.

Rank Community Kommune/Kommunar Region Population (2009)
1 Ålesund Ålesund, Sula Sunnmøre 46,471
2 Molde Molde Romsdal 19,353
3 Kristiansund Kristiansund Nordmøre 17,002
4 Ørsta Ørsta Sunnmøre 6,495
5 Volda Volda Sunnmøre 5,739
6 Ulsteinvik Ulstein Sunnmøre 5,251
7 Sunndalsøra Sunndal Nordmøre 4,240
8 Sykkylven Sykkylven Sunnmøre 4,083
9 Hareid Hareid Sunnmøre 3,773
10 Fosnavåg/Leinstrand Herøy Sunnmøre 3,521

Infrastructure

Møre og Romsdal is served by nine airports, of which only the airports located near the four largest centres have regular domestic flights. The largest airport in the county is Ålesund Airport, Vigra, which offers the only scheduled international routes from any airport in Møre og Romsdal. Ålesund Airport had 732,614 passengers in 2006. Kristiansund Airport, Kvernberget had 364,350 passengers in 2007, while Molde Airport, Årø had 401,292, down from 444,677 in 2006. Ørsta-Volda airport had 49,842 passengers in 2006. None of the airports in Møre og Romsdal offer regular flights to each other.[5]

In 2007, Møre og Romsdal had 6339 kilometres of public roads, an increase of 5 km since the previous year, as well as 4258 kilometres of private roads, 7 km more than in 2006.[6]

Municipalities

Møre og Romsdal has a total of 36 municipalities:

  1. Ålesund
  2. Aukra
  3. Aure
  4. Averøy
  5. Eide
  6. Fræna
  7. (Frei -merged with Kristiansund 1 January 2008)
  8. Giske
  9. Gjemnes
  10. Halsa
  11. Haram
  12. Hareid
  13. Herøy
  14. Kristiansund
  15. Midsund
  16. Molde
  17. Nesset
  18. Norddal
  19. Ørskog
  1. Ørsta
  2. Rauma
  3. Rindal
  4. Sande
  5. Sandøy
  6. Skodje
  7. Smøla
  8. Stordal
  9. Stranda
  10. Sula
  11. Sunndal
  12. Surnadal
  13. Sykkylven
  14. Tingvoll
  15. (Tustna - merged with Aure 1 January 2006)
  16. Ulstein
  17. Vanylven
  18. Vestnes
  19. Volda

References

External links