Fauske Municipality

Fauske^ⓘ (Norwegian) or Fuossko (Lule Sami) is a municipality located in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Salten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Fauske. Some of the villages in Fauske include Nystad, Venset, Straumsnes, Sjønstå, Valnesfjord, Finneid, and Sulitjelma.

The municipality borders Sweden in the east, Sørfold Municipality to the north, Bodø Municipality to the west, and Saltdal Municipality to the southeast. The town is located on the northern shore of Skjerstad Fjord.

The 1,197-square-kilometre (462 sq mi) municipality is the 90th largest by area out of the 357 municipalities in Norway. Fauske Municipality is the 116th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 9,827. The municipality's population density is 8.2 inhabitants per square kilometre (21/sq mi) and its population has increased by 2.8% over the previous 10-year period.

The municipality was established on 1 January 1905 when the old, large Skjerstad Municipality was divided into a smaller Skjerstad Municipality (population: 1,709) in the west and Fauske Municipality (population: 4,646) in the east. The municipal borders haven't changed since that time. In 1998, the municipality declared town status for its administrative centre, the town of Fauske.

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Fauske farm (Old Norse: Fauskar) since the first Fauske Church was built there in 1867. The name is the plural form of fauskr which means "old and rotten tree".

On 15 April 2016, the national government approved a resolution to add a co-equal, official Sami language name for the municipality: Fuossko. The spelling of the Sami language name changes depending on how it is used. It is called Fuossko when it is spelled alone, but it is Fuosko suohkan when using the Sami language equivalent to "Fauske municipality".

The coat of arms was granted on 22 July 1988. The official blazon is "Argent, a reef knot gules" (Norwegian: I sølv en liggende rød båtmannsknute). This means the arms have a field (background) that has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The charge is a red reef knot. It was chosen to represent Fauske as a center of commerce and transportation for the region. The arms were designed by Stein Davidsen.

The Church of Norway has three parishes (sokn) within Fauske Municipality. It is part of the Salten prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Sør-Hålogaland.