page_title: Sveio
section_title: General information
hierarchical_section_title: Sveio / General information
caption_attribution_description: Ryvarden Lighthouse / Norway
context_page_description: Sveio is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. Sveio is a border district that is sometimes considered to be located in the traditional district of Haugalandet since it is located on the Haugalandet peninsula, but it is also considered to be in the traditional district of Sunnhordland since it is located in southern Hordaland county. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sveio. Other villages in the municipality include Auklandshamn, Førde, Våga, and Valevåg.
  The 246-square-kilometre municipality is the 290th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Sveio is the 165th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 5,766. The municipality's population density is 25.7 inhabitants per square kilometre and its population has increased by 15.3% over the previous 10-year period.
  Sveio is the site of the Ryvarden Lighthouse which marks the western entrance to the Hardangerfjorden. The lighthouse is automated and the old keepers house and building have now been converted into art galleries, the Flókemuseum, and a cafe. The composer Fartein Valen lived much of his life in Valevåg in northern Sveio.
context_section_description: The municipality of Sveio was established in 1865 when the part of Finnås municipality located south of the Bømlafjorden (population: 2,227) and the Vikebygd part of the municipality of Fjelberg (population: 1,062) were joined together as the new municipality of Sveen (later the spelling was changed to Sveio). On 1 January 1902, the Vikebygd area (population: 1,092) was separated from Sveio to form its own municipality.
  During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, Sveio (population: 1,697) was merged with the neighboring municipality of Valestrand (population: 1,216), the western half of the municipality of Vikebygd (population: 471), and a small part of the municipality of Skjold (population: 24). The part of Skjold was transferred from Rogaland county to Hordaland county on the same date.
caption: View of the Ryvarden Lighthouse
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "b'\\xcc\\xe0\\xff\\xea Ryvarden'", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 40D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2011:01:13 00:05:39", "Image Artist": "Sergey Ashmarin", "Image ExifOffset": "272", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[59, 31, 379/10]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[5, 13, 284899999/10000000]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSAltitude": "58/25", "GPS GPSTrack": "0", "GPS GPSImgDirection": "0", "Image GPSInfo": "734", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "962", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4032", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/2500", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:07:27 08:21:19", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:07:27 08:21:19", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "352741/31250", "EXIF ApertureValue": "86797/20000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-1/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "35/8", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "281/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "70", "EXIF SubSecTime": "0", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "0", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "0", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2684", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1500", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "324000/73", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "2592000/583", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}