One of the many beaches along the Jæren coastline.
|• Total||1,642 km2 (634 sq mi)|
|• Density||190/km2 (490/sq mi)|
Jæren is the largest flat lowland area in Norway, stretching from the municipality of Randaberg in the north to Hå in the south. The coast is flat compared to the rest of the Norwegian coast, and has sandy beaches along most of the coastline. The largest city of Jæren are Stavanger/Sandnes (pop. 237,852). The petroleum industry around Stavanger is an important part of economy of Jæren, with the headquarters of the country's largest oil company Statoil being located on Jæren, as well regional offices of international companies like ExxonMobil, Eni, Shell, ConocoPhilips, BP, Schlumberger, Halliburton, Baker Hughes and several others. Jæren is also one of the most important agricultural areas of Norway, with a long crop period and a varied and well-developed livestock production. Industry here is also strongly connected to the farming industry, with one of the largest producers of agricultural machines in the world, Kverneland Group, located in Time and Klepp.
Author and poet Arne Garborg grew up in the traditional lowland landscape of Jæren, and in several of his works he describes the landscape and its inhabitants around the turn of the 19th century.
Jæren is one of the 15 districts in Western Norway.
The Norse form of the name was Jaðarr. The name is identical with the word jaðarr m 'edge, brim'. Several farms in Norway (around 30) have the same name. The name refers to the 60 km long coastline stretching from Brusand in the south to Tungenes in the north.
Municipalities of Jæren
The geographical region of Jæren comprise eight municipalities:
|Nr.||Coat of arms||Name||Population||Area||Pop. density|
Different conventions on the extent of the district
The geographical region of Jæren constitutes the abovementioned municipalities, but Jæren district court constitutes only Hå, Klepp, Time and Sola. Also, the Jæren deanery constitutes Hå, Klepp, Time and Gjesdal. Geographically, Gjesdal lies in the transition between Jæren and Dalane districts, but it is traditionally considered to be part of Jæren.
Confusion over the extent of the district is added by the fact that in everyday language, the name Jæren for most people does not include the towns of Stavanger and Sandnes, but rather the more rural area to the south.
- Nordsjøvegen 2003 (Explore Fjord Norway)
- Reisemål Jæren (only Norwegian)
- Store Norske Leksikon (only Norwegian)