Salangen

Salangen is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sjøvegan, where most of the people in the municipality live. Other villages include Elvenes, Laberg, and Seljeskog. The municipality is situated along the Sagfjorden in south central Troms county. The municipality is mostly coastal areas around the fjord as well as some inland valleys. Salangen is home to the world's northernmost bat population. The municipality is the 219th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Salangen is the 276th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 2,087. The municipality's population density is and its population has decreased by 5.7% over the previous 10-year period. The municipality of Salangen was established on 1 January 1871 when it was separated from the large municipality of Ibestad. The initial population of Salangen was 1,384. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the neighboring municipalities of Lavangen (population: 1,677) and Salangen (population: 2,611) were merged to form a new, larger Salangen Municipality with a new population of 4,288. This merger was not popular and on 1 January 1977, it was mostly undone. Most of the old Lavangen municipality (except for the Lavangsnes area) was separated from Salangen to form a separate municipality once again. After the split, Salangen remained with 2,611 residents. On 1 January 2020, the municipality became part of the newly formed Troms og Finnmark county. Previously, it had been part of the old Troms county. The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the local Salangen fjord (Selangr) . The first element is selr which means "seal". The last element is angr which means "fjord". The coat of arms was granted on 2 December 1985. The official blazon is "Azure, a seal hauriant argent" (I blått en skråstilt sølv sel). This means the arms have a blue field (background) and the charge is a seal.