Fredrikstad

Fredrikstad kommune
Municipality
Riverside promenade in Fredrikstad
Coat of arms Østfold within Norway
Fredrikstad within Østfold
Coordinates: 59°12′19″N 10°57′0″E / 59.20528°N 10.95000°E / 59.20528; 10.95000Coordinates: 59°12′19″N 10°57′0″E / 59.20528°N 10.95000°E / 59.20528; 10.95000
Country	Norway
County	Østfold
District	Eastern Norway
Administrative centre	Fredrikstad
Government
• Mayor (2011)	Jon Ivar Nygård (Ap)
Area
• Total	285.9 km2 (110.4 sq mi)
• Land	283 km2 (109 sq mi)
Area rank	283 in Norway
Population (2015)
• Total	78,428
• Rank	6 in Norway
• Density	249/km2 (640/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	7.7 %
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code	NO-0106
Official language form	Bokmål
Website	www.fredrikstad.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

Fredrikstad ( listen ; previously Frederiksstad; literally Fredrik's Town) is a city and municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Fredrikstad.

The city of Fredrikstad was founded in 1567 by King Frederick II, and established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The rural municipality of Glemmen was merged with Fredrikstad on 1 January 1964. The rural municipalities of Borge, Onsøy, Kråkerøy, and Rolvsøy were merged with Fredrikstad on 1 January 1994.

The city straddles the river Glomma where it meets the Skagerrak. Along with neighboring Sarpsborg, Fredrikstad forms the fifth largest city in Norway: Fredrikstad/Sarpsborg. As of 1 January 2013, according to Statistics Norway, these two municipalities have a total population of 128,916 with 75,583 in Fredrikstad and 53,333 in Sarpsborg.

Fredrikstad was built at the mouth of Glomma as a replacement after Sarpsborg (15 kilometres (9 miles) upstream) was burned down by the Swedes. Almost half the population of Sarpsborg stayed behind, and rebuilt their old town at its original site.