Western Norway

Western Norway Vestlandet
Region (landsdel)
Stavanger, Bergen, Ålesund, Selje, Briksdalsbreen, Kvitsøy, Hå, Steinsdalsfossen, Folgefonna, Ørsta, Aurland
Nickname(s): West-Norway
Country	Norway
Capital	Bergen, Stavanger, Molde, Leikanger
Counties (fylker, fylke)	Møre og Romsdal Sogn og Fjordane Hordaland Rogaland
Area
• Total	58,582 km2 (22,619 sq mi)
• Land	55,411 km2 (21,394 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	1,377,700
• Density	24/km2 (61/sq mi)
Nominal GDP(2013)	$57 billion
Nominal GDP per capita (2013)	$41,000
Website	Vestlandsrådet

Western Norway (Norwegian: Vestlandet, Vest-Norge, Vest-Noreg) is the region along the Atlantic coast of southern Norway. It consists of the counties Rogaland, Hordaland, Sogn og Fjordane, and Møre og Romsdal. The region has a population of approximately 1.3 million people. The largest city is Bergen and the second-largest is Stavanger. Historically the regions of Agder, Vest-Telemark, Hallingdal, Valdres and northern parts of Gudbrandsdal have been included in Western Norway.

Western Norway, as well as other parts of historical regions of Norway, shares a common history with Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Iceland and to a lesser extent the Netherlands and Britain. For example, the Icelandic horse is a close relative of the Fjord horse and both the Faroese and Icelandic languages are based on the West Norwegian dialects.

In early Norse times, people from Western Norway became settlers at the Western Isles in the Northern Atlantic, so that the Orkneys, Shetland, the Faroe Islands and Iceland. During the Viking age settlements were made at the Hebrides, Man and Ireland proper.