Modalen is a municipality in the Nordhordland district in the northern part of Hordaland county in Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Mo. The other main village in the municipality is Øvre Helland. Modalen is very sparsely populated, in fact, only the municipality of Utsira has less inhabitants. Most of the residents of Modalen live in the main Modalen valley which extends eastwards from the end of the Romarheimsfjorden.

The small population, combined with a large income from hydro-electric power production, has given the municipality the ability to give all its residents free wireless internet access in the municipality. They also were the first Norwegian municipality to buy a computer for all students in the municipality in 1993.

The parish of Modalen was separated from the old municipality of Hosanger on 1 January 1910 to become a separate municipality. Initially, the municipality had 821 residents. On 1 January 1964, the middle part of the Eksingedalen valley (population: 151) was transferred from Modalen to the municipality of Vaksdal. Also on that date, the Nipo, Dyrkelbotn, and Eitrdalen farm areas (population: 12), located north of the village of Romarheim, was transferred from Modalen to the neighboring municipality of Lindås.

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Mo farm (Old Norse Mór), since Mo Church was built there in the Middle Ages. The name is identical with the word mór which means "heath" or "moor". The last element -dalen (the finite form of dal which means "valley" or "dale") was added later.

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