Austevoll is a municipality in the county of Hordaland, Norway. The population is 4,391 as of January 2006. <ref>Statistics Norway (2006). "Tall om Austevoll kommune".</ref> The municipality consists of several islands, located south-west of Bergen. The municipality is considered to be among the ports in the world with the largest ocean-going fish trawler fleet.

1 Geography
- 1.1 Largest islands
- 1.2 Neighbours
2 Demographics
- 2.1 Villages
- 2.2 Inhabited islands
3 Industry
4 Education
5 Communication
6 Famous people
7 References

[edit] Geography

Austevoll consists of 667 islands off the west coast of West Norway. The municipality has a total land area of 114,0 km² and a costal line of 337 km.<ref>Statistics Norway (2006). "Tall om Austevoll kommune".</ref> The tallest point in Austevoll is the mountain Loddo, 244 meters above sea level.

[edit] Largest islands

Huftarøy
Selbjørn
Hundvåkøy
Stolmen
Storekalsøy

[edit] Neighbours

The municipality borders to Sund, Bergen and Os municipalities in north and northeast, Tysnes municipality in east, Fitjar and Bømlo municipalities in south. West of Austevoll lies the North Sea.

[edit] Demographics

Of the 667 islands, only eight is populated all year round. 29 percent of the inhabitants live in densed populated areas. 28 percent of the inhabitants are under the age of 17, which is 4,4 percent over the national average. 4,7 percent of the inhabitants are 80 years or older. <ref>Statistics Norway (2006). "Tall om Austevoll kommune".</ref>

[edit] Villages

Rank	Island	*Pop. village (2005) <ref>Statistics Norway (2006). "Urban settlements. Population and area, by municipality. 1 January 2006".</ref>*	*Pop. district (2001) <ref>Statistics Norway (2006). "Folke- og bustadteljing 2001".</ref>*
1	Storebø	1,032	1,341
2	Bekkjarvik	355	489
3	Kolbeinsvik		481
4	Vinnes		378
5	Haukanes		235

[edit] Inhabited islands

Rank	Island	*Population <ref>Statistics Norway (2006). "Folke- og bustadteljing 2001".</ref>*
1	Huftarøy	2,435
2	Selbjørn	956
3	Hundvåkøy	554
4	Stolmen	206
5	Storekalsøy	167
6	Møkster	65
7	Litlekalsøy	26
8	Lunnøy	10

[edit] Industry

Fishery is the most important industry in Austevoll, and has been for centuries. Traditionally fishing has taken place in coastal near areas. After decades of overfishing, the herring, which was the most important fish, disappeared in the 1950's. This forced a restructuring of the fishing fleet. From the 1960's the shipping companies built bigger ships, and went further out seas, fishing other fish species. The overfishing of herring also forced better research on fishing, resulting in the Norwegian Institute of Marin Research.

Since the early 1980's the offshore industry has emerged in the prolongation from the offshore Norwegian oil industry. The offshore shipping company DOF, which is enlisted on the Oslo Stock Exchange, has its headquarters at Storebø.

[edit] Education

There are five primary schools and one middle school in Austevoll, all municipal. There is also one secondary school, teaching mainly fishing and nautical subjects. This is operated by the county authority.

[edit] Communication

Austevoll has car ferry communications from Hufthammar on the north tip of Huftarøy to Krokeide, Bergen, and Husavik, south on Huftarøy, to Sandvikvåg in Fitjar. The municipality is also connected by express boats to Bergen in north, and Stord, Haugesund and Stavanger in the south.

The islands Huftarøy and Selbjørn, Selbjørn and Stolmen, and Hundvåkøy and Storekalsøy are connected with bridges. A fourth bridge is under construction, connection Huftarøy and Hundvåkøy. This is bridge, which in fact consists of two bridges and two stone fillings, bears the name of the municipality, "Austevollsbrua", symbolizes that the largest islands in the municipality is connected. The bridge is set to be opened in November 2007.

All ferry and boat routs are operated by Hardanger Sunnhordlandske Dampskipsselskap.

[edit] Famous people

Professional footballer Claus Lundekvam.

[edit] References

Image:Hordaland vapen.png

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Municipalities of Hordaland	Image:Hordaland vapen.png
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