Vear

Vear is a village in Tønsberg Municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. The village is located along the border with Sandefjord Municipality and along the Tønsbergfjorden, about 5 km to the southwest of the city of Tønsberg and about 3 km to the southeast of the village of Sem. The village lies along Norwegian County Road 303 between Melsomvik and Tønsberg.

The 2.32 km2 village has a population (2023) of 3,683 and a population density of 1591 PD/km2.

History
The village had historically grown up along border between Sem Municipality and Stokke Municipality, with certain parts of the village located on either side of the border, but the majority of the village was in Stokke. Stokke established an elementary- and middle school at Vear in 1974. Later, in 1988, Sem was merged into Tønsberg Municipality. In 1989, Tønsberg established an elementary school at Hogsnes. Vear and neighboring Hogsnes have grown together and make up one residential community.

On 1 January 2017, the municipality of Stokke was merged with Sandefjord Municipality, but the village of Vear did not. Vear residents decided to leave Stokke in order to merge into neighboring Tønsberg. Turnout for the ballot was big with 72.9 percent of eligible voters. 63.8 percent of Vear residents decided to transfer to Tønsberg, while 34.1 percent preferred to follow Stokke into Sandefjord municipality. Vear is home to 2,500 residents, which made up 22 percent of Stokke's total population prior to the merge.