Bjerkreim kommune | |||
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Municipality | |||
View of the Bjerkreim landscape
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Bjerkreim within Rogaland |
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Coordinates: 58°39′25″N 06°08′48″E / 58.65694°N 6.14667°ECoordinates: 58°39′25″N 06°08′48″E / 58.65694°N 6.14667°E | |||
Country | Norway | ||
County | Rogaland | ||
District | Dalane | ||
Administrative centre | Vikeså | ||
Government | |||
• Mayor (2015) | Torbjørn Ognedal (Sp) | ||
Area | |||
• Total | 650.56 km2 (251.18 sq mi) | ||
• Land | 577.30 km2 (222.90 sq mi) | ||
• Water | 73.26 km2 (28.29 sq mi) | ||
Area rank | 170 in Norway | ||
Population (2016) | |||
• Total | 2,825 | ||
• Rank | 282 in Norway | ||
• Density | 4.9/km2 (13/sq mi) | ||
• Change (10 years) | 14.1 % | ||
Demonym(s) | Bjerkreimsbu | ||
Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
• Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
ISO 3166 code | NO-1114 | ||
Official language form | Neutral, but the schools and churches use Nynorsk | ||
Website | www |
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Bjerkreim is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Dalane. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Vikeså. Other villages in the municipality include Bjerkreim and Øvrebygd.
Nature has been generous in giving Bjerkreim many idyllic places, making Bjerkreim a good place to live by living in a countryside environment, but still relatively close to a major city, Stavanger. The two and a half thousand inhabitants in Bjerkreim have a total area of 585 square kilometres (226 sq mi) at their disposal. It includes one of the most important salmon rivers in Norway, Bjerkreimselva. The most important livelihoods are agriculture and small-scale industries.
The parish of Birkrem was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). On 1 January 1965, there were many municipal changes in Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On that date, the Nedre Maudal area of Bjerkreim (population: 40) was transferred to the neighboring municipality of Gjesdal.
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Bjerkreim farm (Old Norse: Bjarkarheimr), since the first Bjerkreim Church was built there. The first element is the genitive case of bjørk which means "birch" and the last element is heimr which means "homestead" or "farm". Before 1889, the name was written "Birkrem".