Hjelmeland

Hjelmeland kommune

Municipality

View of the Hjelmeland Church

Coat of arms

Rogaland within
Norway

Hjelmeland within Rogaland

Coordinates: 59°13′02″N 06°20′27″E / 59.21722°N 6.34083°ECoordinates: 59°13′02″N 06°20′27″E / 59.21722°N 6.34083°E

Country

Administrative centre

Hjelmelandsvågen

Government

• Mayor (2015)

Bjørn Laugaland (Sp)

Area

• Total

1,088.82 km² (420.40 sq mi)

• Land

974.34 km² (376.19 sq mi)

• Water

114.48 km² (44.20 sq mi)

Area rank

95 in Norway

Population (2015)

• Total

2,785

• Rank

281 in Norway

• Density

2.9/km² (8/sq mi)

• Change (10 years)

1.8% %

Demonym(s)

Hjelmelandsbu

Time zone

CET (UTC+1)

• Summer (DST)

CEST (UTC+2)

ISO 3166 code

NO-1133

Official language form

Nynorsk

Website

www.hjelmeland.kommune.no

Data from Statistics Norway

Hjelmeland is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Ryfylke. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Hjelmelandsvågen. Other villages in the municipality include Fister, Årdal, and Jøsenfjorden.

Hjelmeland is known for its fruit (apples, pears, plums, cherries and strawberries) and fish production. Salmon has been important for the fish industry in Hjelmeland for a couple of decades, but white fish such as cod and halibut has increased its value in the latter years.

Hjelmeland was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). In 1859, Hjelmeland municipality was split into two: the southern portion of the municipality (population: 1,315) was split off to form the new municipality of Årdal and the remainder of the municipality became the municipality of Hjelmeland og Fister (population: 3,084). On 1 July 1884, the western islands and the western coast of the mainland (population: 832) were split off from Hjelmeland og Fister to form the new municipality of Fister and the rest of the municipality was renamed simply "Hjelmeland" which now had 2,249 residents.

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