Finnøy

Finnøy is a former municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The island municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 2020 when it was merged into Stavanger Municipality. It was located in the traditional district of Ryfylke. The administrative centre of the municipality was the village of Judaberg. The municipality consisted of a number of islands on the south side of the Boknafjorden, about northeast of the city of Stavanger. The Finnøy Tunnel connects the two islands of Finnøy and Talgje to the mainland. The rest of the islands are accessible only by boat. Finnøy is an agricultural community dominated by dairy, meat, poultry, and fish farming products, with strong horticultural traditions, mainly greenhouse production of tomatoes, as well as some tourism. Prior to its dissolution in 2020, the municipality is the 375th largest by area out of the 422 municipalities in Norway. Finnøy was the 256th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 3,235. The municipality's population density was and its population has increased by 21.1% over the last decade. The parish of Finnø was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). It originally encompassed the islands of Finnøy, Talgje, and Fogn as well as the small surrounding islets and the southeasternmost corner of the island of Rennesøy. On 1 January 1918, the part of Finnøy located on the island of Rennesøy (population: 72) was transferred from Finnøy to the neighboring municipality of Rennesøy. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, the municipality of Finnøy was enlarged when it was merged with the entire municipality of Sjernarøy (population: 819), the northeastern part of Ombo island (population: 89) from the municipality of Jelsa, and the Fisterøyene islands (population: 246) from the municipality of Fister. On 1 January 2020, the municipalities of Finnøy, Rennesøy, and Stavanger were merged into one, large municipality called Stavanger.