Hitra

Hitra is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The municipality covers the island of Hitra and hundreds smaller islands, islets, and skerries. It is part of the Fosen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Fillan. Other villages include Andersskogan, Ansnes, Forsnes, Hestvika, Knarrlagsund, Kvenvær, Melandsjøen, Nordbotn, Sandstad, and Ulvan. The municipality is the 149th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Hitra is the 179th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 5,156. The municipality's population density is and its population has increased by 14.6% over the previous 10-year period. Hitra is famous in Norway for its large and dense population of Red Deer (as symbolised in its coat of arms — see image right). Hitra is a member of the International Island Games Association. The prestegjeld of Hitra was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). On 1 January 1877, the northern island district of Frøya (population: 3,949) was separated from Hitra to form a municipality of its own. On 1 January 1886, the southern and eastern parts of Hitra were separated into a new municipality of Fillan. This left Hitra with 2,241 residents. Then on 1 January 1913, the western part of Hitra was separated to form the new municipality of Kvenvær. This left Hitra with 1,439 residents. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the municipalities of Hitra, Kvenvær, Fillan, and Sandstad were merged to form a new, larger Hitra municipality. Prior to the merger, Hitra had 1,344 residents. On 1 January 2018, the municipality switched from the old Sør-Trøndelag county to the new Trøndelag county. On 1 January 2020, the island of Hemnskjela and the northwestern corner of the mainland municipality of Snillfjord was merged into Hitra. The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the island of Hitra (Hitr).