Østfold in the context of "Eastern Norway"

Bohuslän (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈbûːhʉːsˌlɛːn] ) is a Swedish province in Götaland, on the northernmost part of the country's west coast. It is bordered by Dalsland to the northeast, Västergötland to the southeast, the Skagerrak arm of the North Sea to the west, and the county of Østfold, in Norway, to the north. In English it literally means Bohus County, although it shared counties with the city of Gothenburg prior to the 1998 county merger and thus was not an administrative unit in its own right.

Bohuslän is named after the medieval Norwegian castle of Bohus (Norwegian: Båhus). Under the name Båhuslen (Bohuslen in Danish), it was a Norwegian county from the Norwegian conquest of the region from the Geats and subsequent unification of the country in the 870s until the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658, when the union of Denmark–Norway was forced to cede this county, as well as Skåneland (part of Denmark proper), to Sweden.

Islam is the second largest religion in Norway after Christianity. As of 2020, the number of Muslims living in Norway was 182,607 (3.4% of the total population). The majority of Muslims in Norway are Sunni, with a significant Shia minority. 55 percent of Muslims in the country live in Oslo and the former Fylke Viken (now Akershus, Buskerud and Østfold. The vast majority of Muslims have an immigrant background, and very few ethnic Norwegians are Muslim.

Vingulmark (Old Norse Vingulmǫrk) is the old name for the area in Norway which today makes up the counties of Østfold, western parts of Akershus (excluding Romerike), and eastern parts of Buskerud (Hurum and Røyken municipalities), and includes the site of Norway's capital, Oslo. During the Middle Ages, Vingulmark was an administrative unit limited to Oslo, Bærum and Asker.

Viken was a short-lived county in Norway that existed from 1 January 2020 to 1 January 2024. Its name was derived from the historical region in present-day Norway and Sweden. The county was located in Eastern Norway when it was established on 1 January 2020 by the merger of Akershus, Buskerud and Østfold with the addition of the municipalities of Jevnaker, Lunner and the former Svelvik Municipality. Both its creation and its name—described as unhistorical by historians—were controversial from the onset, the merger was resisted by all the three counties and the new county had an approval rating of about 20% in the region. Viken has been compared to gerrymandering. The newly constructed coat of arms of Viken lacked a historical basis and was described by experts as an amateurish logo that did not adhere to the rules of heraldry, and as "three flying saucers under a cap." The county executive of Viken determined in 2019, before the merger had taken effect, that the county's disestablishment was its main political goal, and the formal process to dissolve Viken was initiated by the county executive right after the 2021 Norwegian parliamentary election in which parties seeking to reverse the merger won a majority. The political platform of the government of Jonas Gahr Støre stated that the government would dissolve Viken and re-establish Akershus, Buskerud and Østfold based on a request from the county itself. On 22 February 2022, the regional assembly of Viken approved the formal request to disestablish the county, and the disestablishment took effect on 1 January 2024.

Viken was home to over 1.2 million people, or 23% of the national population. The county seat was the national capital, Oslo, which was an enclave of Viken and is not part of the county. Oslo had been the seat of Akershus county since the Middle Ages. All of Viken was located in the historical Akershus, which included much of Eastern Norway. The county took its name from the historical region of Viken, which has been defined as an area in Bohuslän, in what is now western Sweden, since the late Middle Ages, but which was formerly used loosely for the region around the Oslofjord in the earlier middle ages.

Akershus (Norwegian pronunciation: [ɑkəʂˈhʉːs] ) is a county in Norway, with Oslo as its administrative centre, though Oslo is not located within Akershus. Akershus has been a region in Eastern Norway with Oslo as its main city since the Middle Ages, and is named after the Akershus Fortress in Oslo and ultimately after the medieval farm Aker in Oslo. From the Middle Ages to 1919, Akershus was a main fief and main county that included most of Eastern Norway, and from the 17th century until 2020 and again from 2024, Akershus also has a more narrow meaning as a smaller central county in the Greater Oslo Region. Akershus is Norway's largest county by population with over 716,000 inhabitants.

Originally Akershus was one of four main fiefs in Norway and included almost all of Eastern Norway. The original Akershus became a main county (Stiftamt or Stift) in 1662 and was sometimes also known as Christiania Stift. It included several subcounties (Amt or Underamt); in 1682 its most central areas, consisting of modern Oslo and Akershus, became the subcounty of Akershus within the larger main county of the same name. In 1842, the capital city of Christiania, which at the time consisted of a tiny part of modern Oslo, became a separate subcounty within Akershus main county. The main county of Akershus was disestablished in 1919, and the subcounty continued as Akershus county (fylke). During its history Akershus (sub) county ceded territory to Oslo several times; Akershus' most central and important municipality, Aker, was transferred to Oslo in 1948. Thus, while modern Akershus' capital is Oslo, Oslo is not located within the modern county itself. In 2020, the county of Akershus was merged into Viken along with the counties of Østfold and Buskerud, but Akershus was reestablished as a county from 2024 with slightly enlarged borders. Modern Akershus borders Oslo, Hedmark, Oppland, Buskerud, Oslo, and Østfold; it also has a short border with Sweden (Värmland).