Kautokeino

Kautokeino kommune Guovdageainnu suohkan
Municipality
Coat of arms Finnmark within Norway
Kautokeino within Finnmark
Coordinates: 69°0′42″N 23°2′36″E / 69.01167°N 23.04333°E / 69.01167; 23.04333Coordinates: 69°0′42″N 23°2′36″E / 69.01167°N 23.04333°E / 69.01167; 23.04333
Country	Norway
County	Finnmark
Administrative centre	Kautokeino
Government
• Mayor (2015)	Johan Vasara (Ap)
Area
• Total	9,707.35 km2 (3,748.03 sq mi)
• Land	8,970.28 km2 (3,463.44 sq mi)
• Water	737.07 km2 (284.58 sq mi)
Area rank	1 in Norway
Population (2014)
• Total	2,931 ( from last year)
• Rank	274 in Norway
• Density	0.30/km2 (0.8/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	-2.4 %
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code	NO-2011
Official language form	Bokmål and Sami
Website	www.kautokeino.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

 Kautokeino  (Norwegian) or Guovdageaidnu (Northern Sami) (also: Finnish: Koutokeino and Kven: Koutokeino) is a municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino. Other villages include Láhpoluoppal and Máze.

Guovdageaidnu-Kautokeino is one of two cultural centers of Northern Sápmi today (other being Kárášjohka-Karasjok). The most significant industries are reindeer herding, theatre/movie industry, and the public education system.

The municipality of Kautokeino was established in 1851 when the southern part of the old Kistrand municipality was separated to form this new municipality. Initially, there were 869 residents in the new municipality.

The first element in Guovdageaidnu is guovda which means "middle" or "half" and the last element is geaidnu which means "road". Combined it means "half way", since the location is half way between two traditional migrating points. It is also the geographic centre of Northern Sápmi. Kautokeino is a Finnicized form of the Sámi name Guovdageaidnu, and it is also used by Norwegians.

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Wikipedia