Bodø

Bodø lies on a low, flat peninsula at the mouth of the Saltfjord, just north of the Arctic Circle, and with 43.446 people it is the biggest town in Nordland. Around it everything is steep: the Børvasstindan peaks across the fjord, the island Landegode to the north and, on a clear day, the Lofoten wall far out over the Vestfjord. In Lule Sámi the town is Bådåddjo.

It's a working town. The county administration, Nord University, the Nordland hospital and the armed forces' joint headquarters are all here, and planes are part of daily life: the airport lies right next to the centre, and the airline Widerøe has its head office in town. In 2024 Bodø was European Capital of Culture, the first town north of the Arctic Circle to get the title. The midnight sun lasts from 1 June to 12 July, but Bodø is far enough south that the sun still comes up every day in winter.

Local knowledge: Bodø is an old farm name, Old Norse Boðvin, where vin means meadow and the first part may be boði, a skerry. The town became a kjøpstad in 1816, so that northern fishermen could trade somewhere other than Bergen. Then came the evening of 27 May 1940. In two and a half hours German planes dropped more than 200 explosive bombs and over 1.000 incendiaries on the town. 420 houses were destroyed, and more than 3.700 of the 6.300 people living here lost their homes. Swedish Red Cross houses got people under a roof, but rebuilding took until 1959, when the town hall was finished. The cathedral in the centre, a concrete church with a free-standing bell tower, dates from 1956.

Born here: Morten Abel (born 1962) moved to Stavanger at 15 and became one of Norway's biggest pop stars. Singer and guitarist Jonas Fjeld (born 1952) grew up in Drammen and is known for his records with Rick Danko of The Band.

Visiting: the pin points to the tourist information in the Stormen concert hall at Storgata 1, open on weekdays. On a rainy day, go to the Norwegian Aviation Museum by the airport, 2 km from the centre, in a building shaped like a propeller and full of civil and military aircraft. For a swim there's Nordlandsbadet. Don't miss Saltstraumen, where four times a day the tide forces huge masses of water through a sound only 150 metres wide, one of the strongest tidal currents in the world. To the north-east lies Sjunkhatten National Park. Car ferries leave Bodø for Moskenes in Lofoten, and the Hurtigruten calls every day.

Fact sheet

• Other official names: Bådåddjo (Lule Sámi)
• People: 43.446 in Bodø, 53.638 in Bodø municipality
• County: Nordland
• Town since: 1816 (as a trading town)
• Typical industries: airlines and the airport, county and state offices and the defence headquarters, the hospital
• Midnight sun: 1 June – 12 July

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).