Hammerfest (town)

Hammerfest or Hámmárfeasta is a town that is also the administrative centre of Hammerfest Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. It is located on the northwestern coast of the island of Kvaløya, just north of the village of Rypefjord and southwest of the village of Forsøl. The 2.84-square-kilometre (700-acre) town has a population (2017) of 8,052 which gives the town a population density of 2,835 inhabitants per square kilometre (7,340/sq mi).

The town has an ice-free harbor, including the nearby island of Melkøya which is home to a natural gas processing station. It processes gas from the Snøhvit gas field in the Barents Sea. Rypefjord is a suburb to the south of the town. The main church for the town and municipality is Hammerfest Church. The "midnight sun" is above the horizon from 15 May to 31 July, and the period with continuous daylight lasts a bit longer. Polar night, on the other hand, lasts from 23 November to 19 January. The town is visited by cruise ships from all over the world each summer. In 2016, there were about 19,000 tourists who visited the town of Hammerfest.

Hammerfest is the northernmost town in Norway with a population above 5,000 people. Towns in Norway must have a population above 5,000 for that legal distinction. The nearby town of Honningsvåg in Norway is further north, but it has fewer than 5,000 inhabitants (it was declared to be a town due to a technicality in the law at the time). This is a point of contention between the two towns who both claim to be the northernmost town in Norway. Hammerfest also claims to be the world's northernmost "town" with over 5,000 inhabitants, although there are many smaller "northernmost settlements" in the world.