is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

in Ulstein Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The town is the commercial and

administrative centre An administrative centre is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune, is located. In countries with French as the administrative language, such as Belgi ...

of the municipality and as such, Ulsteinvik contains 74% of the municipal population. The town has a population (2024) of 6,208 and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

of . The town of Ulsteinvik is located on the west side of the island of Hareidlandet, about southwest of the city of Ålesund. Ulstein Church is located in the town, serving the population of the whole municipality. Ulsteinvik received town status on 1 July 2000.

Economy

The town is built in a natural harbour (in fact, the town's name means "Ulstein cove" or "Ulstein inlet"), and has an industry driven largely by

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other Watercraft, floating vessels. In modern times, it normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation th ...

, with two major

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are shipbuilding, built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes m ...

s: Ulstein Verft and Kleven Verft. The Ulstein Group includes the Ulstein Verft shipyard and a growing number of other marine-related companies, the largest of which are Ulstein Power & Control AS and Ulstein Design & Solutions AS. The town has dozens of other maritime-related firms of all sizes, including the global head office of Rolls-Royce plc's marine division. The strength of this industry through the middle of the first decade of the 21st century has led to significant expansion and new construction, both residential and commercial. In 2012, Ulsteinvik was the winner of the most attractive town in Norway.

Culture and sports

The Sjøborg theatre, on Ulsteinvik's waterfront, has both film and live theatre venues. It shows a mixture of "global" and Norwegian feature films (3-5 different films at a time over 10-12 showings per week). In addition, it welcomes a mixture of local and touring live acts, including big band, operatic revues, English- and Norwegian-language dramatic productions and stand-up comedy. Ulsteinvik is the home of IL Hødd, a multi-sport club that includes a

Norwegian First Division The Norwegian First Division, also called 1. divisjon () and OBOS-ligaen (due to sponsoring ties with :no:OBOS, OBOS), is the second-highest level of the Norwegian football league system. Each year, the top finishing teams in the 1. divisjon ...

(as of 2011) football team. The team has a large local following, and generates strong attendance at their stadium, Høddvoll. Hødd also offers several other sports, including

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

and

rhythmic gymnastics Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which gymnasts perform individually or in groups on a floor with an apparatus: hoop (rhythmic gymnastics), hoop, ball (rhythmic gymnastics), ball, Clubs (rhythmic gymnastics), clubs, ribbon (rhythmic gymnastics), ...

. In 2012, Hødd became national cup champions of Norway, beating Tromsø IL in the final of the 2012 Norwegian Football Cup in the Ullevaal Stadion in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

. In addition, Ulsteinvik is the home of smaller clubs in each of

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

and

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

(Sunnmøre Rugby). It is also the hometown of men's 400m hurdles world record holder and Olympic champion

Karsten Warholm Karsten Warholm (; born 28 February 1996) is a Norwegian Sport of athletics, sprinter who competes in the 400 metres and 400 metres hurdles, 400 m hurdles. He is the Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics, 2020 Tokyo Olympic champion, silver meda ...

, as well as Norway's first-choice football goalkeeper in the Beijing Olympics, Erika Skarbø. Ulsteinvik is the birthplace of the underground

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

Øystein Runde.

Media

Ulsteinvik is the headquarters of the local subscription-based newspaper Vikebladet Vestposten (commonly known by only the first name), formed by a 1989 merger of two previously-existing newspapers (Vikebladet & Vestposten). The community is also served by the free regional weekly RegionAvisa and the Ålesund-based daily Sunnmørsposten.

Transport

Norwegian county road Fv 61 runs along the south edge of the town centre, and is the major route connecting Ulsteinvik to points northeast ( Hareid and Sula, with connections to Ålesund) and south (the villages of Eiksund and Haddal as well as the municipalities of Herøy Municipality, Sande, and others). Since its completion in 2008, the Eiksund Tunnel, the world's deepest

undersea tunnel An underwater tunnel is a tunnel which is partly or wholly constructed under the sea or a river. They are often used where building a bridge or operating a ferry link is unviable, or to provide competition or relief for existing bridges or ferry l ...

, connects Ulsteinvik by road to the mainland via Fv 653. Ulsteinvik is served by one bus company, Vy Buss, with the express route directly to

operated under its Vy express brand. Ulsteinvik is from the Ørsta–Volda Airport, Hovden, which has several-daily flights to Oslo Airport, Gardermoen and Sogndal Airport, Haukåsen. It is also served by Ålesund Airport, Vigra, away, which has a broader selection of national and international flights.

References

External links