The 755-square-kilometre (292 sq mi) municipality is the 150th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Høylandet is the 320th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 1,216. The municipality's population density is 1.7 inhabitants per square kilometre (4.4/sq mi) and its population has decreased by 3.7% over the previous 10-year period.[4][5]
General information
The municipality of Høylandet was established on 1 January 1901 when it was separated from the large municipality of Grong. Initially, the population of Høylandet was 1,046. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the Kongsmoen area (population: 221) of eastern Foldereid municipality was merged into Høylandet. On that same date the Galguften and Hauknes areas (population: 15) were transferred from Høylandet to neighboring Overhalla municipality.[6] On 1 January 2018, the municipality switched from the old Nord-Trøndelag county to the new Trøndelag county.
Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named Høylandet (Old Norse: Høylǫnd). The first element is høy which means "hay". The last element is the plural form of lǫnd which means "land" or "region". Thus it means "the land/region where they grow hay". The name was historically spelled Hølandet or Høilandet.[7]
The coat of arms was granted on 2 January 1990. The official blazon is "Vert, a swan argentrousant, armedsable" (Norwegian: I grønt en oppflygende sølv svane). This means the arms have a green field (background) and the charge is a whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus). The swan 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 swan is also armed, which means the feet and beak are black. This design was chosen to symbolize of the large number of these swans that migrate through the area each year. The arms were designed by Einar H. Skjervold.[8][9][10][11]
The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Høylandet is made up of 15 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.