Vennesla

Vennesla kommune
Municipality
View of the Setesdal Line railway museum in Vennesla municipality
Coat of arms Vest-Agder within Norway
Vennesla within Vest-Agder
Coordinates: 58°18′38″N 7°51′25″E / 58.31056°N 7.85694°E / 58.31056; 7.85694Coordinates: 58°18′38″N 7°51′25″E / 58.31056°N 7.85694°E / 58.31056; 7.85694
Country	Norway
County	Vest-Agder
District	Sørlandet
Administrative centre	Vennesla
Government
• Mayor (1999)	Torhild Bransdal (KrF)
Area
• Total	384.47 km2 (148.44 sq mi)
• Land	362.04 km2 (139.78 sq mi)
• Water	22.43 km2 (8.66 sq mi)
Area rank	244 in Norway
Population (2016)
• Total	14,308
• Rank	82 in Norway
• Density	39.5/km2 (102/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	14.3 %
Demonym(s)	Venndøl
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1014
Official language form	Neutral
Website	www.vennesla.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

Vennesla is a municipality in Vest-Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sørlandet. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Vennesla. Other villages in Vennesla include Grovane, Hægeland, Homstean, Mushom, Øvre Eikeland, Øvrebø, Røyknes, and Skarpengland. Vennesla lies about 17 kilometres (11 mi) north of the city of Kristiansand in the Otra river valley.

The 384.47-square-kilometre (148.44 sq mi) municipality is the 244th largest by area in Norway. Vennesla is the 82nd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 14,308. The municipality's population density is 39.5 inhabitants per square kilometre (102/sq mi) and its population has increased by 14.3% over the last decade.

The parish of Vennesla was established in 1864 when it was separated from the larger municipality of Øvrebø. Initially, Vennesla had 1,103 residents. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, Vennesla (population: 7,321) was merged with most of the neighboring municipality of Øvrebø (population: 925) and with all of another neighboring municipality, Hægeland (population: 849) which created a new, much larger municipality of Vennesla. On 1 January 1978, a small area of Vennesla (population: 10) was transferred to neighboring Songdalen municipality. Then again on 1 January 1984, the unpopulated Hauglandsvatnet area was transferred from Vennesla to Songdalen municipality. On 1 January 1990, the unpopulated Røssebrekka area, just east of the village of Vennesla was transferred from Kristiansand municipality to Vennesla.