The 93-square-kilometre (36 sq mi) municipality is the 331st largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Sande is the 257th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 2,442. The municipality's population density is 27.1 inhabitants per square kilometre (70/sq mi) and its population has decreased by 7.1% over the previous 10-year period.[4][5]
General information
Sande was established as a municipality on 1 January 1867 when it was separated from the large Herøy Municipality. The initial population was 2,493. On 1 January 1873, a part of eastern Sande (with 362 residents) was transferred back to Herøy. On 1 January 1889, the Eksund area and the island of Ekø (population: 119) were transferred to Herøy Municipality.[6]
On 1 January 1905, the eastern district of Sande was separated to form the separate municipality of Rovde. This left Sande with 2,221 residents. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the northern part of the municipality of Rovde (population: 562) plus three farms in the Gurskedalen valley (population: 25) were merged back with Sande (the southern part of Rovde was merged with Vanylven Municipality). The new Sande municipality had a population of 3,465. On 1 January 2002, the Åram area (population: 380) on the mainland was transferred from Sande to Vanylven Municipality.[6][7]
Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Sande farm (Old Norse: Sandr) since the first Sande Church was built there. The name comes from the word sandr which means "sand" or "sandy beach". Before 1892, the name was written Sandø.[8]
Coat of arms
The coat of arms was granted on 23 October 1987. The official blazon is "Azure, a line buoy argent" (Norwegian: På blå grunn ei sølv linebøye). This means the arms have a blue field (background) and the charge is a line buoy. The line buoy has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The blue color in the field symbolizes the importance of the sea. This symbol was chosen since it was historically used by fishermen in ocean and fjords around the island municipality. The arms were designed by Jarle Skuseth who based it off an idea from Helge Kragseth. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.[9][10][11]
The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Sande is made up of 21 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.