Stord

Stord kommune
Municipality
View of the town of Leirvik
Coat of arms Hordaland within Norway
Stord within Hordaland
Coordinates: 59°48′29″N 05°27′59″E / 59.80806°N 5.46639°E / 59.80806; 5.46639Coordinates: 59°48′29″N 05°27′59″E / 59.80806°N 5.46639°E / 59.80806; 5.46639
Country	Norway
County	Hordaland
District	Sunnhordland
Administrative centre	Leirvik
Government
• Mayor (2015)	(A)
Area
• Total	143.7 km2 (55.5 sq mi)
• Land	137.39 km2 (53.05 sq mi)
• Water	6.31 km2 (2.44 sq mi)
Area rank	358 in Norway
Population (2014)
• Total	18,425
• Rank	61 in Norway
• Density	134.1/km2 (347/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	12.3 %
Demonym(s)	Stordabu, Stording
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1221
Official language form	Nynorsk
Website	www.stord.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

Stord is a municipality in Hordaland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sunnhordland. Stord is sometimes called "Norway in miniature" since it has such a variety of landscapes: coastline, fjords, forests, agricultural land, and mountain areas. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Leirvik, which is also the largest town in the municipality and the whole region of Sunnhordland. Leirvik was declared a town in 1997. Other population centres in the municipality include the large village of Sagvåg and the smaller villages of Litlabø and Grov.

The parish of Stordøen was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). IN 1863, the northern district of the municipality (population: 2,313) was separated to become the new municipality of Fitjar. On 15 May 1868, the southern district of Stordøen located on the mainland (population: 900) was separated to form the new municipality of Valestrand. On 1 January 1898, the southern part of the island of Huglo (population: 117) was transferred from the neighboring municipality of Fjelberg to Stord. On 1 January 1970, the small uninhabited part of the island of Stord along the Valvatnavågen that belonged to Bømlo was transferred to Stord municipality.

The municipality is named after the large island of Stord (Old Norse: Storð). The name is old and it was (and still is) used in Icelandic literature meaning "ground" or "earth". Before 1889, the name was written "Stordøen".