The 302-square-kilometre (117 sq mi) municipality is the 278th largest by area out of the 422 municipalities in Norway. Lavangen is the 390th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 1,061. The municipality's population density is 3.6 inhabitants per square kilometre (9.3/sq mi) and its population has increased by 5% over the last decade.
General information
Lavangen was established on 1 January 1907 when it was separated from Ibestad Municipality. The initial population was 1,536. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the neighboring municipalities of Lavangen (population: 1,677) and Salangen (population: 2,611) were merged into one large municipality of Salangen. The merger was brief, however, because on 1 January 1977, the old Lavangen municipality (except for the Lavangsnes area) was made a separate municipality once again.
Name
The municipality is named after the fjord (Old Norse: Laufangr). The first element is lauf which means "leaf" (here in the sense of 'birchwood') and the last element is angr which means "fjord".
Coat of arms
The coat of arms is modern, it was granted on 18 December 1987. The arms are a canting of the name (which means leaf) since it shows three gold-colored birch leaves on a red background. The three leaves represent how the municipality was settled by Norwegians, Samis, and Kvens.
Churches
The Church of Norway has one parish (sokn) within the municipality of Lavangen. It is part of the Indre Troms prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Nord-Hålogaland.
The municipality encompasses the land around the Spansdalelva river valley and most of the area around the Lavangen fjord, south of the Astafjorden. The municipality borders Narvik (in Nordland county) to the south, Gratangen to the west, Salangen to the north, and Bardu to the east.
View of the mountain Spanstinden near Soløy
View of the Lanvangen fjord
View of Skavmodalen
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