Prior to its dissolution in 1963, the 185.2-square-kilometre (71.5 sq mi) municipality was the 393rd largest by area out of the 689 municipalities in Norway. Leiranger Municipality was the 550th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of about 1,417. The municipality's population density was 7.7 inhabitants per square kilometre (20/sq mi) and its population had decreased by 5% over the previous 10-year period.[8][9]
General information
The municipality was established on 1 September 1900 when the southern district of Steigen Municipality was separated to become the new municipality of Ledingen. Initially, the municipality had 1,117 residents. In 1910, the name was changed to Leiranger. uring the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the following areas were merged to form a new, larger Steigen Municipality:[10]
The municipality was originally named Ledingen after the old name for the local fjord that is now called Leinesfjorden (Old Norse: Leiðangrar). The first element is leir which means "clay". The last element is angr which means "fjord". Thus the name means the "clay fjord".[11] On 3 July 1909, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Leiranger, to give it a modern version of the Old Norse name.[12]
The municipal council(Herredsstyre) of Leiranger was made up of representatives that were elected to four year terms. The tables below show the historical composition of the council by political party.
^ abHelland, Amund (1908). "Ledingen herred". XVIII. Nordlands Amt. Fierde del. Norges land og folk (in Norwegian). Kristiania, Norway: H. Aschehoug & Company. p. 362. Retrieved 6 September 2024.
^Helland, Amund (1908). "Ledingen herred". Norges land og folk: Nordlands amt (in Norwegian). Vol. XVIII. Kristiania, Norway: H. Aschehoug & Company. p. 358. Retrieved 15 September 2018.