Klepp

Klepp is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Jæren. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Kleppe. Other villages in Klepp include Klepp stasjon, Orre, Orstad, Pollestad, Verdalen, and Voll. Klepp is a flat and open agricultural landscape. The highest point, Tinghaug, is at 102 m above sea level. There are long stretches of sand beaches along the North Sea coastline in the west.

The 113 km2 municipality is the 324th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Klepp is the 63rd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 20,615. The municipality's population density is 201.4 PD/km2 and its population has increased by 13.1% over the previous 10-year period. The population around Kleppe is growing rapidly, mostly in the form of suburban single-family homes, but also in the form of some apartment blocks. There is a shopping mall in Kleppe called Jærhagen.

General information
The old parish of Klep was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). The boundaries of the municipality have not changed since that time.

Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Klepp farm (Kleppi) since the first Klepp Church was built there. The name is the dative case of the word kleppr which means "rocky hill". The inscription on the Klepp I Runestone indicates that the name has been in use since the late 10th or early 11th century. Before 1912, the name was written "Klep".

Coat of arms
The coat of arms was granted on 18 February 1972. The official blazon is "Azure, a Cossack cross Or" (På blå botn ein svevande, utskrådd gul kross). This means the arms have a blue field (background) and the charge is a Cossack cross. The charge has a tincture of Or which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. The cross on the arms symbolizes the large stone cross at Krosshaug in Klepp. Krosshaug is a grave hill located near the site where the local thing met for centuries. The Old Norse word haugr means "mound", hence the name "kross-haug" is the cross-mound. The cross was considered a representative historic symbol for the municipality. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.

Churches
The Church of Norway has four parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Klepp. It is part of the Jæren prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Stavanger.

History
The earliest traces of population in the municipality have been dated to around 6000 BC. At that time, the land was covered by large oak woods. The large stone cross standing on the grave hill Krosshaug dates from around 1000 AD and is possibly the oldest in Norway. It is adjacent to Tinghaug, the site for a local Thing for many centuries during the Iron Age. Tinghaug probably acted as a site for the local court and assembly for many centuries.

Geography
The municipality is located 25 km south of the city of Stavanger. Neighbouring municipalities are Hå to the south, Time to the south and east, Sola and Sandnes to the north. The coastline is agricultural and consists of, from south to north, the areas Orre, Reve, Bore and Sele.

The long Orrestranda beach, one of the longest sandy beaches in Norway, is in Klepp. The river Figgjoelva empties into the North Sea in Klepp. The small island of Feistein lies off shore and is the site of the Feistein Lighthouse. There are two large lakes in Klepp: Orrevatnet and Frøylandsvatnet.

Transportation
The Sørlandet railway line, historically called the Jæren Line, runs through Klepp along lake Frøylandsvatnet. The village of Klepp stasjon, 3 km east of Kleppe, is built around the train station Klepp Station. The nearby Oksnevadporten Station is the other railway station in Klepp.

Economy
Klepp is the second largest agricultural municipality in Rogaland, with a total of around 600 farms. Kverneland Group, located in Kvernaland, is the largest manufacturer of agricultural equipment in the world.

Sports
The local sports club Klepp IL most notably has a women's football team in the Norwegian top league. Famous players include Dagny Mellgren and the national team captain Ane Stangeland Horpestad. Gymnast Åge Storhaug also represented the club.

Government
Klepp Municipality is responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, welfare and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor is indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council. The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Sør-Rogaland District Court and the Gulating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council
The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Klepp is made up of 31 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.

Mayors
The mayors (ordfører) of Klepp (incomplete list):


 * 1838–1846: Ingebret Grude
 * 1846–1849: Erik Eriksson Stangeland
 * 1849–1851: Ingebret Grude
 * 1851–1851: Henrik Ødegaard
 * 1852–1855: Johan Garmann Grude
 * 1856–1859: Paul Hauge
 * 1860–1863: Karl Grude
 * 1864–1867: Tore Ellingsen
 * 1868–1869: Johan Garmann Grude
 * 1872–1879: Johan Garmann Grude
 * 1880–1881: Rasmus O. Kleppe
 * 1913–1916: Thore Larsen Braut (V)
 * 1945–1947: A.M. Stangeland
 * 1947–1951: Sven Grude
 * 1951–1955: Ommund Thu
 * 1955–1961: Hans K. Sveinsvoll (Bp)
 * 1971–1981: Enok E. Stangeland (Sp)
 * 1981–1987: Lars Brunes (H)
 * 1987–1991: Asbjørn Kverneland (H)
 * 1991–1999: Ole I. Bore (Sp)
 * 1999–2011: Elfin Lea (H)
 * 2011–2019: Ane Mari Braut Nese (H)
 * 2019–2023: Sigmund Rolfsen (Ap)
 * 2023–present: Kjetil Maudal (FrP)

Parliament
There have been many members of the Parliament of Norway from Klepp. Thore Larsen Braut and Karl K. Kleppe were members of Parliament prior to the Second World War. After the war Lars Storhaug, Oddbjørg Ausdal Starrfelt, and Knut Haus have been members of Parliament.

Notable people

 * Theodor Dahl (1886–1946), a journalist, short story writer, novelist, and poet
 * Asgaut Steinnes (1892–1973), a historian who was the National archivist of Norway from 1933 to 1960
 * Torvald Tu (1893–1955), a poet, playwright, novelist, and writer of humoresques
 * Sigve Tjøtta (born 1930), a mathematician and long-distance runner
 * Åse-Marie Nesse (1934–2001), a philologist, academic, and poet
 * Arne Sølvberg (born 1940), a computer scientist, academic, and expert in information modelling