Vindafjord, Rogaland County, Norway

🇳🇴 Vindafjord is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Haugaland. Since 2005, the administrative centre of the municipality has been the village of Ølensjøen (prior to that time it was the village of Sandeid). Other villages in the municipality include Bjoa, Imslandsjøen, Ølensvåg, Skjold, Vats, Vikebygd, and Vikedal. The municipality is centered on the Vindafjorden and Sandeidfjorden in the east and it lies north and east of the Skjoldafjorden in the west.

The 621-square-kilometre (240 sq mi) municipality is the 186th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Vindafjord is the 122nd most populous municipality in Norway. The municipality's population density is 14.7 inhabitants per square kilometre (38/sq mi) and its population has increased by 3.9% over the previous 10-year period.

General information During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, the new municipality of Vindafjord was created from several areas in northern Rogaland county: • all of Sandeid municipality; • the Liarheim og Langeland areas of Skjold municipality on the north side of the Skjoldafjorden; • all of Vats municipality except for the Breidal and Stølsvik farms; • all of Imsland municipality located north of the Vindafjorden; • all of Vikedal municipality except for the Hapnes and Dokskar farms; Initially, Vindafjord had 4,616 residents. On 1 January 1969, the Sponevik farm) was transferred from Vindafjord to the neighboring municipality of Tysvær. Then on 1 January 1978, the Vormestrand area along the southern shore of the Vindafjorden was transferred to neighboring Suldal municipality.

On 1 January 2006, Vindafjord merged with the neighboring municipality of Ølen (population: 3,420). Ølen had transferred from Hordaland county to Rogaland county 2002. After the merger, the municipal centre of Vindafjord was moved from Sandeid to the village of Ølensjøen, which had been the administrative centre of Ølen.

Name The municipality (created in 1965) is named after the Vindafjorden ((Old Norse: Vindafjǫrðr), a fjord that runs through the eastern part of the municipality. The first element is derived from the verb vinda which means "to turn" or "to twist", referring to the sharp turn of the fjord at Dragneset. The last element is fjǫrðr which means "fjord".