Prior to its dissolution in 1964, the 79-square-kilometre (31 sq mi) municipality was the 547th largest by area out of the 689 municipalities in Norway. Jøssund Municipality was the 455th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of about 1,915. The municipality's population density was 24.1 inhabitants per square kilometre (62/sq mi) and its population had decreased by 0.5% over the previous 10-year period.[6][7]
General information
The municipality of Jøssund was established on 1 January 1896 when it was split off from the large Aafjord Municipality. Initially, Jøssund Municipality had a population of 1,529.[8]
During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, Jøssund Municipality (population: 1,917) was merged with the neighboring Bjugn Municipality (population: 1,240), Nes Municipality (population: 1,107), and the northern part of Stjørna Municipality (population: 676) to form a new, larger Bjugn Municipality.[8]
Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Jøssund farm (Old Norse: Mjórsund). The first element comes from the word mjór which means "narrow" or "thin". The old name did originally start with an "m", but over time the initial letter disappeared from the spelling and pronunciation (sometime before the early 16th century). The last element is sund which means "sound" or "strait". Historically, the name's spelling has varied. In the 1500s and 1600s it was spelled Jußund using the letter ß, and by the 1700s, it was written in its current form.[9]
Jøssund Municipality was a coastal municipality on the Fosen peninsula including an area on the mainland plus many offshore islands. Åfjord Municipality was located to the northeast, Stjørna Municipality was to the southeast, Bjugn Municipality was located to the south, and Nes Municipality was located to the southwest. The highest point in the municipality was the 492.5-metre (1,616 ft) tall mountain Seksortklumpen.[1]
The municipal council(Herredsstyre) of Jøssund was made up of 17 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The tables below show the historical composition of the council by political party.
The mayor (Norwegian: ordfører) of Jøssund was the political leader of the municipality and the chairperson of the municipal council. Here is a list of people who held this position:[17][18]