Levanger

Levanger is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the district of Innherred. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Levanger. Some of the notable villages in the municipality include Alstadhaug, Ekne, Hokstad, Markabygd, Momarka, Frol, Mule, Nesset, Okkenhaug, Ronglan, Skogn, and Åsen. The town of Levanger lies at the mouth of the Levangselva river along the Trondheimsfjord. One of the main roads through the town is Kirkegata. The town has a population (6 October 2020) of 10,333. The population density is . The town has held "town status" as of 1997 and houses a campus of the Nord University as of 2016. Levanger is a member of the Italian initiative, Cittaslow, for slow towns that don't adopt a "fast-lane" approach that is so common in most modern towns. The municipality is the 174th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Levanger is the 62nd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 20,171. The municipality's population density is and its population has increased by 6.6% over the previous 10-year period. The kjøpstad of Levanger was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). In 1856, the kjøpstad (market town) of Levanger (population: 1,017) and the rural areas surrounding the town (population: 2,290) were separated and the rural area became the rural municipality of Levanger landsogn (the name was later changed to Frol). On 13 November 1951, a small area of Frol (population: 51) was transferred to the town of Levanger. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1962, the town of Levanger (population: 1,669) was merged with the neighboring municipalities of Frol (population: 3,774), Åsen (population: 1,939), and Skogn (population: 4,756) to form a new, larger municipality called Levanger. Then, on 1 January 1964, the island municipality of Ytterøy was merged with the newly enlarged municipality of Levanger.