This is alist of towns and cities inNorway. TheNorwegian language wordby means atown orcity–there is no distinction between the two words as there is in English. Historically, the designation of town/city was granted by the king, but since 1996 that authority was given to the localmunicipal councils for each municipality in Norway. In Norway today, there are 108 towns/cities, but they have no legal authority or powers and they are not an administrative body, it is simply a designation. All local government rests with the municipality which may or may not have a town/city located within it.[1]
Historically, the wordskjøpstad (market town),ladested (small seaport), orbergstad were used for a town or city. Each of these were granted certain specialrights based on their classification and they did hold administrative authority within their borders. A ladested was subordinate to a kjøpstad and over time some of the ladesteds were "upgraded" to the status of kjøpstad in order to gain more trading rights. In 1665, Norway had 20 towns. There were 9 full market towns (kjøpstad): Bergen, Oslo, Trondheim, Tønsberg, Stavanger, Skien, Fredrikstad, Halden, and Kristiansand. There were two mountain towns {bergstad): Kongsberg and Røros. There were 9 market seaports (ladested): Larvik, Moss, Porsgrunn, Molde, Kragerø, Risør, Holmestrand, Mandal, and Drammen (which was actually 2 towns: Bragernes and Strømsø). All of theladested places on this list were later upgraded tokjøpstads. During the 1800s, urbanization took hold in Norway and many new towns/cities were added. The special trading rights for towns/cities were abolished in 1857.[1]
In 1946, Norwegian municipalities were each assigned amunicipality number, a four-digit codes based onISO 3166-2:NO. Towns/cities got a municipality number in which the third digit was a zero and rural municipalities were given other numbers. In 1952 the special classifications of for towns/cities (kjøpstad, bergstad, and ladested) were entirely rescinded from the law and replaced by the simple classification ofby. Starting on 1 January 1965, the government's focus was moved from the individual towns/cities to their corresponding municipalities. All Norwegian towns/cities and rural municipalities were classified as either abykommune (urban municipality) orherredskommune (rural municipality). This distinction was rescinded by The Local Government Act of 1992.[1]
Between 1960 and 1965 many Norwegian municipalities were merged. For instance when the urban municipalityBrevik merged with the urban municipalityPorsgrunn and the rural municipalityEidanger, the new municipality was called Porsgrunn and it kept the municipality number for Porsgrunn. As a result, Brevik was no longer considered an urban municipality/town. On another note, when the urban municipalityHønefoss was merged with the rural municipalitiesHole,Norderhov,Tyristrand, andÅdal to form the new municipality ofRingerike, Ringerike retained the old municipality number of Hønefoss meaning that it retained its town/city status. The same thing happened toEgersund andFlorø.[2]
Before 1996, thecity status was awarded by the king and Government through theMinistry of Local Government and Regional Development. Since then, the status of town/city is decided by each municipal council and then it is 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 municipal council ofBardu Municipality declared city status forSetermoen, only to be rejected because the municipality fell short of the population limit. One exception isHonningsvåg inNordkapp Municipality, where the municipality actually has less than 5,000 inhabitants but declared city status before the limit was implemented by law in 1997.[3]
Because of the new laws in 1996-1997, Norway witnessed a rapid rise in the number of cities after that time. A number of relatively small settlements are now calledby, such asBrekstad with 1,828 inhabitants andKolvereid with 1,448 inhabitants. Among the cities of today which got this status before 1996,Tvedestrand with 1,983 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 the 11th century, is the largest city and also thecapital of Norway. Oslo is the only city in Norway that is consolidated with its municipality and county, thus thecity of Oslo,Oslo Municipality, andOslo County are all one unified unit of government.[1]
^Stavern was designated akjøpstad in 1943 under theQuisling regime. In 1946, after World War II, the Norwegian government formally approved this change effective in 1943.
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