Aukra

Aukra is municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the region of Romsdalen. The administrative centre is the village of Falkhytta, which is part of the Aukrasanden urban area. The municipality is made up of the island of Gossa as well as many small surrounding islands, plus a small area around the village of Hollingen across the Julsundet strait on the mainland Romsdal peninsula. Some of the main population centers include the villages of Hollingen, Aukrasanden, Varhaugvika, and Røssøyvågen. Nyhamna is a major industrial area in Aukra. The municipality is the 345th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Aukra is the 215th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 3,518. The municipality's population density is and its population has increased by 7% over the previous 10-year period. The municipality of Akerø was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). In 1840, most of Akerø on the Romsdal peninsula was separated to form the municipality of Frænen. On 1 January 1867, the islands that are located to the west of Gossa (population: 601) were separated to become the new Sandøy Municipality. On 1 January 1924, the southern part of the municipality (Otrøya and several other islands) were separated to form the new municipality of Sør-Aukra, and the remainder of the municipality was renamed Nord-Aukra. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the Mordal area of Nord-Aukra (population: 77) was transferred to Molde Municipality. On 1 January 1965, Nord- was dropped from the name of the municipality, so it was then just called Aukra. On 1 January 2020, the uninhabited islands of Lyngværet and the island of Orta (population: 11) were transferred from Sandøy Municipality to Aukra. The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Aukra farm (Aukrin) since the first Aukra Church was built there. The first element is akr which means "field" or "acre".