Back فيكن Arabic Viken (county) BAN Vikena apskrėtės BAT-SMG Viken (comtat) Catalan Viken Czech Viken (fylke) Danish Viken German Βίκεν Greek Viken Esperanto Provincia de Viken Spanish
Viken County
Viken fylke | |
|---|---|
&sq=Sri Lanka&lang=en&file=File:Viken_v%C3%A5pen.svg) Coat of arms | |
&sq=Sri Lanka&lang=en&file=File:Norway_Counties_Viken_Position.svg) Viken within Norway | |
&sq=Sri Lanka&lang=en&file=File:Norway_Viken_adm_location_map.svg)  Viken County &sq=Sri Lanka&lang=en&file=File:Norway_location_map.svg) Viken County | |
| Coordinates: 60°N 10°E / 60°N 10°E | |
| Country | Norway |
| County | Viken |
| District | Eastern Norway |
| Established | 1 January 2020 |
| • Preceded by | Buskerud, Akershus, and Østfold counties |
| Disestablished | 1 January 2024 [1] |
| • Succeeded by | Buskerud, Akershus, and Østfold counties |
| Administrative centre | Oslo (county municipality) Drammen (council) |
| Government | |
| • Body | Viken County Municipality |
| • Governor (2011) | Valgerd Svarstad Haugland (KrF) |
| • County mayor (2020) | Roger Ryberg (Ap) |
| Area (upon dissolution) | |
• Total | 24,593 km2 (9,495 sq mi) |
| • Land | 22,768 km2 (8,791 sq mi) |
| • Water | 1,824 km2 (704 sq mi) 7.4% |
| • Rank | #6 in Norway |
| Population (2021) | |
• Total | 1,252,384 |
| • Rank | #1 in Norway |
| • Density | 55/km2 (140/sq mi) |
| • Change (10 years) |  +13.5% |
| Official language | |
| • Norwegian form | Neutral |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| ISO 3166 code | NO-30[3] |
| Website | Official website |
Viken[4] was a short-lived county in Norway that existed from 1 January 2020 to 1 January 2024. Its name was derived from the historical region in modern Sweden. The county was located in Eastern Norway when it was established on 1 January 2020 by the merger of Akershus, Buskerud and Østfold with the addition of the municipalities of Jevnaker, Lunner and the former Svelvik Municipality. Both its creation and its name—described as unhistorical by historians[5][6]—were controversial from the onset, the merger was resisted by all the three counties and the new county had an approval rating of about 20% in the region. Viken has been compared to gerrymandering.[5] The newly constructed coat of arms of Viken lacked a historical basis and was described by experts as an amateurish logo that did not adhere to the rules of heraldry, and as "three flying saucers under a cap."[5] The county executive of Viken determined in 2019, before the merger had taken effect, that the county's disestablishment was its main political goal, and the formal process to dissolve Viken was initiated by the county executive right after the 2021 Norwegian parliamentary election in which parties seeking to reverse the merger won a majority.[7][8] The political platform of the government of Jonas Gahr Støre stated that the government would dissolve Viken and re-establish Akershus, Buskerud and Østfold based on a request from the county itself.[9][10] On 22 February 2022, the regional assembly of Viken approved the formal request to disestablish the county, and the disestablishment took effect on 1 January 2024.[11][12]
Viken was home to over 1.2 million people, or 23% of the national population.[13][14] The county seat was the national capital, Oslo, which was an enclave of Viken and is not part of the county. Oslo had been the seat of Akershus county since the Middle Ages. All of Viken was located in the historical Akershus, which included much of Eastern Norway. The county took its name from the historical region of Viken, which has been defined as an area in Bohuslän, in what is now western Sweden, since the late Middle Ages, but which was formerly used loosely for the region around the Oslofjord in the earlier middle ages.
- ^ "Saksfremlegg - Søknad om fylkesdeling". Viken fylkeskommune. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
- ^ "Forskrift om målvedtak i kommunar og fylkeskommunar" (in Norwegian). Lovdata.no.
- ^ Bolstad, Erik; Thorsnæs, Geir, eds. (9 January 2024). "Kommunenummer". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Foreningen Store norske leksikon.
- ^ "Arealstatistikk for Norge". Kartverket (in Norwegian Bokmål). 8 March 2013. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
- ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference
Roedewas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Historikere fnyser av navnevalget" [Historians scoff at the choice of name]. NRK. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
- ^ "Viken i gang med å forberede oppsplitting" [Viken is preparing dissolution of the county]. VG. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
- ^ "Nytt stortingsflertall – prosess for Viken". Viken. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
- ^ AS, TV 2 (13 October 2021). "Dette er partiene enige om". TV 2.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Lindahl, Magnus (13 October 2021). "Kan oppløyse Viken innan 1. juli". Hallingdølen.
- ^ Session of Viken regional assembly, 23 February 2022]
- ^ Lilleås, Heidi Schei (October 2019). "Monica Mæland om Viken-dramaet: Vil ikke spekulere". Nettavisen.
- ^ "Fakta og tall om Viken - Viken fylkeskommune". viken.no. Archived from the original on 1 August 2021.
- ^ "Senterpartiet vil oppløse Viken". 31 July 2021.