Thursday, 14 March 2013


Kristiansand is a city, municipality and the county capital of Vest-Agder county in Southern Norway. Kristiansand municipality is the 5th largest in Norway with a population of 82,562 as of 1 April 2011. The Kristiansand urban area, entirely located in the municipality, had a population of 67,547 on 1 January 2009, and is thus the 8th largest urban area in Norway. In addition, the Statistics Norway counts that there are 4 other densely populated areas in the municipality: Skålevik with a population of 3,026, Strai with a population of 1,636, Justvik with a population of 1,803 and Tveit with a population of 1,396 citizens.

The city was named after its founder King Christian IV in 1641. The last element sand refers to the sandy headland the city was built on. The name was written "Christian(s) sand" until 1877 – then, according to an official spelling reform; the form was changed to "Kristianssand". The name was again changed to its present form Kristiansand in 1889. In 2012, the city's mayor, Arvid Grundekjøn, proposed that the city be renamed Christianssand, arguing that "Kristiansand" is grammatically meaningless and that Christianssand stands for tradition.