Sunnmøre

Sunnmøre highlighted in red

Sunnmøre ("South-Møre" in Norwegian) is the southernmost traditional district of the western Norwegian county (fylke) of Møre og Romsdal. Its main city is Ålesund. The region comprises the municipalities (kommunar) of Giske, Hareid, Herøy, Norddal, Sande, Skodje, Haram, Stordal, Stranda, Sula, Sykkylven, Ulstein, Vanylven, Volda, Ørskog, Ørsta, and Ålesund.

Though it is understood as one of the three traditional districts in Møre og Romsdal, Sunnmøre has more than half the population of the fylke - 130,601 (53%) of a total 247,313.

In the early Viking Age, before Harald Fairhair, Sunnmøre was a petty kingdom.

While Sunnmøre has no formal administration, many national organizations chose to have separate divisions for Sunnmøre. For example, the Football Association of Norway (NFF, Norges Fotballforbund) has a separate Regional Association (krets) for Sunnmøre, separate from the "Nordmøre and Romsdal fotballkrets". This is also true for the national police.

All kommunar in Sunnmøre have adopted Nynorsk as their government's form of the Norwegian language, with the exception of Ålesund kommune, which has declared itself to be "neutral", though almost all of the education in Ålesund is conducted using Bokmål. This exception is striking, as Ålesund is by far the largest centre in the area.

There are many local newspapers throughout Sunnmøre, as well as one that aims to cover the entire region, published from Ålesund, called Sunnmørsposten.

The major centres (by urban population - 2009) of Sunnmøre are:

See also

• Ny-Sunnmøre
• Romsdal
• Nordmøre

Coordinates: 62°9′N 6°20′E / 62.15°N 6.333°E / 62.15; 6.333

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