Holmlia

Holmlia
Neighborhood
Holmlia center, located on Holmlia senter vei.
Holmlia Location of Holmlia in Norway.
Coordinates: 59°50′5.55″N 10°47′41.89″E / 59.8348750°N 10.7949694°E / 59.8348750; 10.7949694Coordinates: 59°50′5.55″N 10°47′41.89″E / 59.8348750°N 10.7949694°E / 59.8348750; 10.7949694
Country	Norway
Region	Eastern Norway
County	Oslo
Municipality	Oslo
Population (2012)
• Total	35,843
Time zone	CET (UTC+01:00)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+02:00)
Post Code	1255 Oslo

Holmlia is a neighborhood in Oslo, Norway with around 12,000 residents. It is located in the southeastern part of Søndre Nordstrand, the southernmost borough in Oslo.

The neighborhood is served by Holmlia Station on the Østfold Line, which has a travel time to Oslo S of about 13 minutes. The Holmlia Sportsklubb is located in Holmlia, which contains a football club currently in the Norwegian fourth division. Holmlia also boasts an extensive hiking trail network, which makes it possible to walk to most of the surrounding neighborhoods without ever crossing a single street. It also contains Oslo's only underground swimming pool, Holmlia Bad, located in the mountains near the middle school. The 25 m (82 ft) long pool is run by the city and offers saunas, a slide, and special bathing hours for children and women.

Holmlia is a highly ethnically diverse part of the city of Oslo, with 47.7% of the population having a minority background. The average age of Holmlia's residents is very low. Children under the age of 19 make up 31.3% of the population, whereas only 3.2% are pensioners.

Media said in 2016 that the employment rate is at 73% in Søndre Nordstrand - nine percent lower than the 82% employment in Norway.

The neighborhood's name comes from the rail stop built in 1932. Holmlia Station was originally going to be called Holm Station, but the name was rejected since there was already a Holm on the Vestfold Line. The station was therefore named Holmlia, a combination of two local property names: the farm Holm and the torp Lia.

The earliest records show that Holmlia was once part of a larger area known as "Rudin" (Old Norse for "clearings," compare to modern verb "å rydde" which means "to clear"). Rudin was a large area that extended over the entire plateau of modern-day Ekeberg and Nordstrand to the north, Bogerud, Skullerud, and Klemetsrud to the east, and Oppegård to the south with Oslofjord as its western border. At first Rudin was a relatively barren area midway between the richer agricultural areas of the Grorud Valley to the north and the Follo villages to the south. However by the 14th century there were an estimated 50 farms in Rudin, including two recorded farms in Holmlia itself: Ås, which still exists in a smaller form today, and Holm, the namesake of the modern community which was roughly where the intersection of Rosenholmveien and Holmliaveien lies today.