Skaun

Skaun is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Orkdalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Børsa. Other villages include Buvika, Eggkleiva, Melby, Skaun, and Viggja. Skaun is predominantly rural, but is nonetheless situated only from Norway's third largest city, Trondheim. Most inhabitants, except agricultural and public sector workers, work outside of Skaun in Trondheim, Orkanger, or Melhus. The European route E39 runs east to west across the northern part of the municipality and Norwegian County Road 709 runs north and south through the municipality. The municipality is the 297th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Skaun is the 127th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 8,360. The municipality's population density is and its population has increased by 20.4% over the previous 10-year period. The municipality of Børseskognen was established on 1 January 1890 when it was separated from the municipality of Børsa. The initial population was 1,410. In 1930, the name was changed to Skaun. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, the three neighboring municipalities of Skaun (population: 1,251), Børsa (population: 1,476), and Buvik (population: 1,267) were merged to form a new, larger municipality of Skaun. On 1 January 2018, the municipality switched from the old Sør-Trøndelag county to the new Trøndelag county. The municipality was originally named Børsaskogen meaning "the forest of Børsa", referring to its more rural forested nature compared to the more built up area of Børsa to the north. In 1930, the name was changed to Skaun. This name was chosen after the old Skaun farm (Skaun) since the first Skaun Church was built there. The name comes from the Old Norse word skinr which means "to shine". This is believed to refer to the lake Laugen. The coat of arms was granted on 9 January 1987.