Vågan Municipality Vågan kommune Vuogát (Northern Sami)
Municipality
Vaagan herred  (historic name)
Flag Coat of arms
Nordland within Norway
Vågan within Nordland
Coordinates: 68°16′41″N 14°31′15″E / 68.27806°N 14.52083°E / 68.27806; 14.52083
Country	Norway
County	Nordland
District	Lofoten
Established	1 Jan 1838
Administrative centre	Svolvær
Government
• Mayor (2023)	Vidar Thom Benjaminsen (H)
Area
• Total	479.17 km2 (185.01 sq mi)
• Land	459.97 km2 (177.60 sq mi)
• Water	19.21 km2 (7.42 sq mi)  4%
• Rank	#210 in Norway
Population  (2023)
• Total	9,736
• Rank	#116 in Norway
• Density	21.2/km2 (55/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	+5.7%
Demonym	Vågaværing[1]
Official language [2]
• Norwegian form	Neutral
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1865[3]
Website	Official website
Data from Statistics Norway

Vågan (Northern Sami: Vuogát) is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Lofoten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Svolvær. Some of the villages in Vågan include Digermulen, Gimsøysand, Gravermarka, Henningsvær, Hopen, Kabelvåg, Kleppstad, Laupstad, Liland, Skrova, Straumnes, and Sydalen.^[4]

The 479-square-kilometre (185 sq mi) municipality is the 210th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Vågan is the 116th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 9,736. The municipality's population density is 21.1 inhabitants per square kilometre (55/sq mi) and its population has increased by 5.7% over the previous 10-year period.^[5][6]

General information

Vågan was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). In 1856, the northwestern part of Vågan Municipality (population: 987) was separated to form the new Gimsøy Municipality. On 1 July 1918, the town of Svolvær (population: 2,429) was separated to form its own municipality. This left Vågan with 3,399 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 Gimsøy (population: 1,551), Svolvær (population: 3,952), and Vågan (population: 4,820) were merged to form the new, larger municipality of Vågan.^[7]

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Vågan farm (Old Norse: Vágar) since the first Vågan Church was built there. The name is the plural form of vágr which means "bay" or "inlet". The island of Austvågøya (Old Norse: Vágøy) was named after this important site too (which later led the neighboring island to be named Vestvågøya).^[8] On 21 December 1917, a royal resolution enacted the 1917 Norwegian language reforms. Prior to this change, the name was spelled Vaagan with the digraph "aa", and after this reform, the name was spelled Vågan, using the letter å instead.^[9][10]

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 30 March 1973. The official blazon is "Azure, a cod embowed argent" (Norwegian: På blå bunn en vertikalstillet fremadbøyd sølv torsk). This means the arms have a blue field (background) and the charge is a cod. The cod has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The blue color in the field and the code were chosen because fishing is the main source of income for the municipality. The arms were designed by Hallvard Traetteberg, basing them off the old arms for the town of Svolvær which was merged into Vågan in 1964.^[11][12][13]

Churches

The Church of Norway has five parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Vågan. It is part of the Lofoten prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Sør-Hålogaland.

Geography

The main population centres are the town of Svolvær and the villages of Kabelvåg and Henningsvær, located on the largest island, Austvågøya (although Svolvær and Henningsvær are partly located on smaller islands adjacent to the main island). All three have a picturesque situation under the rugged Lofoten mountains, facing the rough body of water called Vestfjorden. Vågan municipality includes over half of Austvågøya island, all of the islands of Gimsøya, Skrova, Stormolla, Litlmolla, numerous other tiny islets, plus the southwestern tip of the island of Hinnøya. The Moholmen Lighthouse and Skrova Lighthouse are both located in the Vestfjorden. Two notable mountains in the municipality are Higravstinden and Svolværgeita. Other mountains include Fløyfjellet, Trakta, and Vågakallen.

Climate

Skrova near Svolvær has a temperate climate (marine west coast) in the 1991-2020 period.

Government

All municipalities in Norway are responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, welfare and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor is indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.^[17] The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Salten og Lofoten District Court and the Hålogaland Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Vågan is made up of 29 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.