Narvik

(Áhkanjárga) is the third-largest municipality in Nordland county, Norway, by population. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Narvik. Some of the notable villages in the municipality include Ankenesstranda, Ballangen, Beisfjord, Bjerkvik, Bjørnfjell, Elvegård, Kjøpsvik, Skjomen, Håkvik, Hergot, Straumsnes, and Vidrek. The Elvegårdsmoen army camp is located near Bjerkvik. Narvik is located on the shores of the Ofotfjorden. The municipality is part of the traditional district of Ofoten of Northern Norway, inside the Arctic Circle. The municipality of Narvik borders the municipality of Hamarøy to the southwest, Evenes to the northwest, Bardu, Gratangen, Lavangen and Tjeldsund (in Troms og Finnmark county) to the north, and Norrbotten County (Lapland) in Sweden to the south and east. The municipality is the 10th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Narvik is the 57th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 21,530. The municipality's population density is and its population has decreased by 2% over the previous 10-year period. The municipality of Narvik was established on 1 January 1902 when the village of Narvik received status as a proper town and was separated from the large municipality of Ankenes. Initially, the town-municipality of Narvik had 3,705 residents. On 1 January 1974, the municipality of Ankenes was merged with the town-municipality of Narvik, forming a new, larger municipality of Narvik. After the merger, the new municipality of Narvik had 19,780 residents. On 1 January 1999, a small area of Narvik Municipality (population: 9) was transferred to the neighboring Evenes Municipality. On 1 January 2020, the municipality of Narvik was merged with the neighboring Ballangen Municipality and the eastern half of Tysfjord Municipality to form a new, larger municipality of Narvik. This occurred because in 2017, the municipal government agreed to the merger and the Parliament of Norway required Tysfjord to be split up.