Saltdal

Saltdal kommune
Municipality
View of Saltdal
Coat of arms Nordland within Norway
Saltdal within Nordland
Coordinates: 66°55′12″N 15°33′36″E / 66.92000°N 15.56000°E / 66.92000; 15.56000Coordinates: 66°55′12″N 15°33′36″E / 66.92000°N 15.56000°E / 66.92000; 15.56000
Country	Norway
County	Nordland
District	Salten
Administrative centre	Rognan
Government
• Mayor (2011)	Finn Obert Bentsen (Ap)
Area
• Total	2,216.16 km2 (855.66 sq mi)
• Land	2,085.86 km2 (805.36 sq mi)
• Water	130.30 km2 (50.31 sq mi)
Area rank	23 in Norway
Population (2012)
• Total	4,710
• Rank	197 in Norway
• Density	2.25/km2 (5.8/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	-3.1 %
Demonym(s)	Saltdaling
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1840
Official language form	Bokmål
Website	www.saltdal.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

Saltdal (Northern Sami: Sálát) is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Salten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Rognan. Other villages in Saltdal include Røkland and Lønsdal.

The municipality of Saltdal was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). In 1949, a small area of Skjerstad (population: 10) was transferred to Saltdal. Other than that one change, the borders have never changed.

The Old Norse form of the name must have been Salptardalr. The first element is the genitive case of the river name Salpt which means "strong steam", (now Saltdalselva, which runs through Saltdal) and the last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale".

The coat-of-arms is from modern times; they were granted in 1988. The arms show two gold-colored rowan twigs on a red background. It was chosen to represent nature and the prevalence of rowan forests in the municipality.

The Church of Norway has two parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Saltdal. It is part of the Salten deanery in the Diocese of Sør-Hålogaland.

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