Alta

Alta is the biggest town in Finnmark, spread out over the flat land where the Alta river runs into the inner end of the Altafjord. The valley has the richest pine forest and the most farmland in Finnmark, and the town has shopping centres and a university campus. It's the trading and service town for all of Finnmark and Nord-Troms, and fishing and fish farming out along the fjord give close to 600 jobs. The sun doesn't set from about 17 May to 26 July, and from about 26 November to 16 January it stays below the horizon.

In North Sámi the town is Áltá, in Kven Alattio. In 1801 more than half the people in Alta were Sámi and almost a fifth Kven. Nobody is sure what the name means: perhaps Sámi alda, a place of sacrifice, the Old Norse word for swan, or a Finnish word for lowland.

Local knowledge: Alta only became a town in 2000, when Bossekop, Elvebakken and Bukta were joined. Bossekop is the old one. It was a market place where Sámi from Kautokeino, Karasjok and Porsanger came to sell reindeer meat, hides and grouse on fixed days in March and December. In November 1944 the retreating German army burned Bossekop and the rest of Alta and sent the people south. One building in today's centre survived: Alta church, a white log church from 1858. It was wrecked inside, and on Christmas Eve 1945 it was in use again with 24 makeshift benches.

Born here: ski jumper Bjørn Wirkola (born 1943) won both ski jumping events at the 1966 World Championships in Oslo and the Four Hills Tournament three years running, and Norwegians still say "to jump after Wirkola" when someone has to follow an act that can't be beaten. Film director Tommy Wirkola (born 1979) made the Nazi-zombie comedy Dead Snow and later Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters and Violent Night.

Visiting: the pin is on Sentrumsparken in the middle of the centre, the part of town where the Finnmarksløpet sled dog race starts and finishes. A few minutes away is the Northern Lights Cathedral, the spiral church from 2013, and right next to it Nordlysbadet, the swimming pool, which is where we'd go on a rainy day. The other good indoor stop is Alta Museum at Hjemmeluft, by the rock carvings: close to 3.000 figures of reindeer, elk, bears and boats, the oldest about 6.000 years old. Good to know: in the centre you may only park in marked spaces. For a day out, drive up to the Alta Canyon at Sautso, the most distinct canyon in Norway.

Fact sheet

• Other official names: Áltá (North Sámi), Alattio (Kven)
• People: 16.532 in Alta, 22.074 in Alta municipality
• County: Finnmark
• Town since: 2000
• Typical industries: fishing and fish farming, car sales and repair, building trades
• Midnight sun: 17 May – 26 July
• Polar night: 26 November – 16 January

Population on 1 January 2026, from Statistics Norway. Typical industries are the ones with a much bigger share of the jobs here than in Norway as a whole (Statistics Norway, 2025).