The 261-square-kilometre (101 sq mi) municipality is the 294th largest by area out of the 422 municipalities in Norway. Haram is the 122nd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 9,345. The municipality's population density is 36.7 inhabitants per square kilometre (95/sq mi) and its population has increased by 8.4% over the last decade.[4][5]
The parish of Haram was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). The western island district of Roald was separated from Haram on 1 January 1890 to form the new municipality of Roald. This left 1,956 people left in Haram.[6]
During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, three municipal changes involving Haram occurred:
The part of Haram Municipality on the island of Harøya, including the Myklebost area and the smaller surrounding islands to the west of there (population: 287), was separated from Haram Municipality and merged into the neighboring Sandøy Municipality to the northeast.
Most of Vatne Municipality (population: 2,260) to the southeast of Haram Municipality was merged into Haram Municipality.
The Søvik area in Borgund Municipality (population: 1,191) to the south of Haram Municipality were merged into Haram.
These three boundary changes created a much larger municipality of Haram.[6]
On 1 January 2020, the neighboring municipalities of Haram, Skodje, Ørskog, Sandøy, and Ålesund were merged to form a new, large municipality of Ålesund. This occurred because in June 2017, the Parliament of Norway voted to approve the merger.[7] Soon after the merger, there was discontent among the people who had lived in the old Haram municipality. After lots of discussions, the municipal council of the new Ålesund petitioned the government to reverse that part of the merger and split Haram off as a separate municipality once again. On 3 October 2022, the Parliament of Norway approved a law to split Haram off as a separate municipality effective on 1 January 2024.[8]
Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Haram farm (Old Norse: Harhamarr) since the first Haram Church was built there. The first element is prefix har- which has an unknown meaning. The last element is hamarr which means "stone" or "steep cliff". Prior to 1889, the name was written Harham.[9]
Coat of arms
The coat of arms was granted on 7 August 1987 and it was in use until 2020 when the municipality ceased to exist. The official blazon is "Per fessengrailed of three lobes argent and azure" (Norwegian: Delt av sølv og blått med omvend bogesnitt med tre bogar). This means the arms have are divided with a horizontal line that is engrailed three times. The field (background) below the line has a tincture of azure. Above the line, the field 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 design was chosen to look like three waves, symbolizing the importance of the sea in this island municipality. The arms were designed by Eldar Tandstad. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.[10][11][12]
Dialect
The dialect of the area was well known for its practice of H-dropping and the old and traditional pronunciation of the name of the municipality was [a:ram].
The municipality of Haram includes many islands including Bjørnøya, Fjørtofta, Haramsøya, Løvsøya, Skuløya, and Terøya. The islands of Bjørnøya and Terøya are connected to the mainland via causeways. The islands of Haramsøya and Skuløya are connected with the Ullasund Bridge. The rest of the islands have ferry connections to the mainland. The new Nordøyvegen bridge and tunnel network will connect all of the main islands of Haram to the mainland when it is completed in 2022. The Haramsfjorden, Vatnefjorden, and Romsdal Fjord all flow through the municipality.
The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Haram is made up of 27 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.
^Rogne, M (1937). "Kommunestyringa 1837–1937". Haram og Vigra kommune 1837–1937 (in Norwegian). Ålesund: Sunnmørspostens bok- og aksidenstrykkeri. p. 16.
+8.4%
