Tjeldsund

Tjeldsund (Dielddanuorri) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The southwestern part of the municipality is part of the traditional district of Ofoten and the rest of the municipality is part of Central Hålogaland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Evenskjer. Other important villages include Fjelldal, Myklebostad, Grovfjord, Renså, Sandstrand, Tovik, and Ramsund. Norges Brannskole (Norway's education and training center for firemen) is situated in Fjelldal. Marinejegerkommandoen is based south of Ramsund. The municipality is the 139th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Tjeldsund is the 197th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 4,201. The municipality's population density is and its population has decreased by 1.3% over the previous 10-year period. The municipality of Tjeldsund was established on 1 January 1909 when it was separated from the large Lødingen Municipality. Tjeldsund encompassed the eastern part of Lødingen prior to the division. Initially, Tjeldsund had a population of 1,404. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the western part of the island of Tjeldøya (population: 297) was transferred to Tjeldsund Municipality from Lødingen Municipality, uniting the whole island within the same municipality. On the same date, the unpopulated Ramnes area of Evenes Municipality was also transferred to Tjeldsund Municipality. On 1 January 2020, the municipality merged with the neighboring Skånland Municipality and at the same time the new municipality became a part of the newly formed Troms og Finnmark county (prior to the merger, Skånland was located in the old Troms county and Tjeldsund was in Nordland county). The municipality is named after the Tjeldsundet strait which runs between the islands of Tjeldøya and Hinnøya. The first element is the (uncompounded) Old Norse name of the island of Tjeldøya (Tjöld or Tjalda).