The geographical centre of Norway has been identified as a spot in the

Ogndal Ogndal is a former municipality in what was the old Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1885 until its dissolution in 1964. The municipality included the whole Ogndalen valley and areas to the west, up to, but not incl ...

sfjella in the southeastern part of the municipality of Steinkjer in Trøndelag county, located at . A monument marking the significance of the spot was unveiled in a ceremony on 3 September 2006, with the hope that it would become a tourist attraction. The site lies just to the west of the large lake Skjækervatnet.

Method of calculation

Harald Stavestrand at the

Norwegian Mapping and Cadastre Authority The Norwegian Mapping Authority (NMA) ( no, Statens kartverk or Kartverket) is Norway's national mapping agency, dealing with land surveying, geodesy, hydrographic surveying, cadastre and cartography. The current director is Johnny Welle. Its ...

looked for the balancing point of mainland Norway with its islands, not including sea area, the overseas areas of

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range ...

and Jan Mayen, or considering elevation. Stavestrand had feared that the centre would turn out to be in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

due to the curved shape of Norway, but it ultimately ended up within the borders of Norway.

Other locations

Several other places have been claimed to be the centre of Norway, using differing methods. They include Harran in the municipality of Grong (halving the mainland's latitude "length"), the village of Vilhelmina in the municipality of

Vilhelmina Vilhelmina ( sma, Vualtjere) is a locality and the seat of Vilhelmina Municipality in Västerbotten County, province of Lapland, Sweden with 3,657 inhabitants in 2010. Climate Vilhelmina has a subarctic climate that is less severe than typical ...

in Sweden (halving the

great-circle distance The great-circle distance, orthodromic distance, or spherical distance is the distance along a great circle. It is the shortest distance between two points on the surface of a sphere, measured along the surface of the sphere (as opposed to a ...

), Grane Church in the municipality of Grane and Alstahaug Church in the municipality of

Alstahaug Alstahaug is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Nordland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Helgeland Districts of Norway, region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Sandnessjøen. Som ...

(both are found by halving longer

great circle In mathematics, a great circle or orthodrome is the circular intersection of a sphere and a plane passing through the sphere's center point. Any arc of a great circle is a geodesic of the sphere, so that great circles in spherical geomet ...

distances), and finally Mosjøen in the municipality of Vefsn.

References

Statens kartverk: Norges midtpunkt

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070930020724/http://www.t-a.no/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20060904%2FNYHETER%2F109040146 Trønder-Avisa: Folksomt på midtpunktet, 4 September 2006
NRK Trøndelag: Norges midtpunkt åpnet, 4 September 2006

Mosjøen – byen midt i Norge
Centre Geography of Trøndelag Norway Steinkjer {{Trøndelag-geo-stub