Stavanger is a city and municipality in Rogaland located in
southwestern Norway. Stavanger is Norway's fourth largest urban
municipality with 142,034 inhabitants (1 January 2020). On 1 January
2020, Finnøy municipality and Rennesøy municipality were merged with
Stavanger into a new Stavanger municipality. The municipality is
located on Nord-Jæren and together with Sandnes, Sola and Randaberg
constitutes the country's third largest urban area with 242,819
inhabitants. Stavanger municipality borders Randaberg, Sandnes,
Sola, and in the north to Bokn. Stavanger is the administration
center in Rogaland county and the seat of the county governor, the
county administration and the Stavanger diocese. The city is also
the seat of Stavanger District Court, Rogaland Police District and
the sea division in the Norwegian Mapping Authority. Stavanger is
considered the administrative, economic and cultural center in the
county and is the city of residence for several actors and
institutions in culture, finance, health, research and education.
The Stavanger region consists of 13 surrounding municipalities
according to the metropolitan report from 2002. As of 1 April 2015,
the population in the region was 332,405. The region has over 70% of
the inhabitants in Rogaland and just under 25% of the inhabitants in
Western Norway.
Stavanger is today considered the center of
the oil industry in Norway and is one of Europe's energy capitals
and is often called the "oil capital". Forus Business Park is
located on the municipal border between Stavanger, Sandnes and Sola
and is one of the country's largest business parks with 2,500
companies and almost 40,000 jobs. The Nordic region's largest
company, Equinor, is headquartered at Forus in Stavanger, and in
addition several international oil and gas companies have their
Norwegian office in the city. As a result, the city is considered to
be very international, with an immigrant share of 21.1%. Several
government actors such as Petoro, the Norwegian Petroleum
Directorate and the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway also have
their headquarters in Stavanger. Stavanger also houses several
institutions of higher education, with the University of Stavanger
being the largest. The university offers several doctoral programs,
including in petroleum technology and offshore technology. The city
is also the residence of Stavanger University Hospital (SUS), Helse
Vest, the Norwegian Petroleum Museum, the research institute
International Research Institute of Stavanger, Rogaland Theater,
Stavanger Concert Hall, Department of Gastronomy and the recruit
school KNM Harald Haarfagre. Stavanger Airport is located in the
neighboring municipality of Sola and is one of the Nordic region's
busiest airports.
Stavanger organizes Offshore Northern Seas
every other year, which is the world's second largest exhibition and
conference for the energy sector. The happy food festival is also
held every year in Stavanger and is considered to be one of
Scandinavia's leading food festivals. The city is also known for
being one of the country's foremost culinary clusters. In 2008,
Stavanger was the European Capital of Culture, and the city also
hosted the Spellemann Prize from 2013 to 2015.