Oppland

Oppland fylke
County
Oppland mountains
Flag Coat of arms
Oppland within Norway
Country	Norway
County	Oppland
Region	Østlandet
County ID	NO-05
Administrative centre	Lillehammer
Government
• Governor	Christl Kvam   (2015–2019)
• County mayor	Even Aleksander Hagen   (2015–2019)
Area
• Total	25,192 km2 (9,727 sq mi)
• Land	23,787 km2 (9,184 sq mi)
Area rank	#5 in Norway, 7.82% of Norway's land area
Population (30 September 2019)
• Total	189,437
• Rank	12 (4.01% of country)
• Density	8/km2 (20/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	0.2 %
Demonym(s)	Opplending
Time zone	UTC+01 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02 (CEST)
Official language form	Neutral
Income (per capita)	133,600 NOK
GDP (per capita)	193,130 NOK (2001)
GDP national rank	13 (2.32% of country)
Website	www.oppland.no
Data from Statistics Norway

Oppland [ˈɔ̂plɑn] was until 1 January 2020 a county in Norway bordering to the counties of Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo and Hedmark. The county administration was located in Lillehammer.

Oppland was, together with Hedmark, one of the only two landlocked counties of Norway. Oppland and Hedmark counties were merged on 1 January 2020 to become the new county Innlandet.

Innlandet was one of several names proposed for the new administrative region consisting of Hedmark and Oppland.^[4][5] The two counties were re-merged after being split in 1781 (then called Hedemarkens amt and Kristians amt, respectively). Historically, the region was commonly known as "Opplandene".

Geography

Oppland extended from the lakes Mjøsa and Randsfjorden to the mountains Dovrefjell, Jotunheimen and Rondane. The county was conventionally divided into traditional districts. These are the Gudbrandsdalen, Valdres, Toten, Hadeland and Land.

Oppland included the towns Lillehammer, Gjøvik, Otta, and Fagernes, and Norway's two highest mountains, Glittertind and Galdhøpiggen, Valdres and the Gudbrand Valley being popular attractions. The Gudbrand Valley surrounds the river Gudbrandsdalslågen, and includes the area extending from Jotunheimen down to Bagn at Begna River. It is a well known place for skiing and winter sports. The main population centres in this area were Beitostølen and Fagernes. Eight of the ten highest mountains in Norway are located in the western part of Oppland.

Etymology

In Norse times the inner parts of Norway were called Upplǫnd 'the upper countries'. The first element is upp 'upper'. The last element is lǫnd, the plural form of 'land'.

In 1757 the inner parts of the great Akershus amt were separated, and given the name Oplandenes Amt. This was divided in 1781 into Christians Amt (named after the king Christian VII) and Hedemarkens Amt. The name/form was changed to Kristians Amt in 1877 (after an official spelling reform that changed ch to k - see also Kristiania, Kristiansand and Kristiansund). In 1919 the name Kristians Amt was changed (back) to Opland fylke, and the form Oppland was settled in 1950.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms were granted in 1989, and it shows two Pulsatilla vernalis.

Municipalities

Oppland County (Christians Amt)^[6] has a total of 26 municipalities:

Number of minorities (1st and 2nd gen.) in Oppland by country of origin in 2017[7]
Nationality	Population (2017)
Poland	2,421
Lithuania	1,606
Somalia	1,209
Eritrea	1,164
Syria	817
Denmark	743
Iraq	714
Sweden	698
Germany	660
Bosnia-Herzegovina	624
Thailand	574
Afghanistan	560
Netherlands	495
Iran	495
Russia	466
Philippines	376
Vietnam	365
Kosovo	330

Districts

Cities

Parishes

Villages

Former municipalities

References

External links

• Media related to Oppland at Wikimedia Commons
• Oppland travel guide from Wikivoyage