Editing Troms (section)

==History==
[[File:Tromsø 1900.jpg|thumb|left|Tromsø in 1900; Tromsø was for many decades an important base for hunting and whaling in the [[Arctic]].]]
{{Historical populations
|footnote = '''''Source''': [http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/02/02/folkendrhist_en/tables/tab/19.html Statistics Norway].''<ref>[http://statbank.ssb.no/statistikkbanken/Default_FR.asp?PXSid=0&nvl=true&PLanguage=0&tilside=selecttable/hovedtabellHjem.asp&KortnavnWeb=folkfram Projected population – Statistics Norway] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023110552/http://statbank.ssb.no/statistikkbanken/Default_FR.asp?PXSid=0&nvl=true&PLanguage=0&tilside=selecttable/hovedtabellHjem.asp&KortnavnWeb=folkfram |date=2013-10-23 }}</ref>
|shading = off
|1951|117564
|1961|127771
|1971|136805
|1981|146818
|1991|146816
|2001|151777
|2011|157554
|2021?|168953
|2031?|176342
}}
Troms has been settled since the early [[Stone Age]], and there are prehistoric [[rock carvings]] at several locations (for instance [[Ibestad Municipality|Ibestad]] and [[Balsfjord Municipality|Balsfjord]]). These people made their living from hunting, fishing and gathering.

The first of the current ethnic groups to settle in the county were the [[Sami people]], who inhabited [[Sápmi]], an area much larger than today's [[Nordland]], Troms and [[Finnmark]] counties. [[Archeological]] evidence has shown that a [[Norsemen|Norse]] [[iron]]-based culture in the late Roman [[Iron Age]] (200–400 AD), reaches as far north as [[Karlsøy Municipality]] (north of today's city of Tromsø), but not further northeast.

The Norse with their iron and agriculture settled along the coast and in some of the larger fjords, while the [[Sami people|Sami]] lived in the same fjord areas, usually just into the fjord and in the interior.<ref>{{cite book|first=Przemyslaw|last=Urbańczyk|title=Medieval Arctic Norway|publisher=Institute of the History of Material Culture, Polish Academy of Sciences|location=Warsaw, Poland|year=1992|pages=56–67|isbn=978-83-900213-0-0}}</ref> From the 10th century, Norse settlements start to appear along the coast further north, reaching into what is today the county of Finnmark.

Southern and Mid-Troms was a [[petty kingdom]] in the [[Viking Age]], and considered part of [[Hålogaland]]. [[Ottar from Hålogaland]] met King [[Alfred the Great]] around 890. The Viking leader [[Tore Hund]] had his seat at [[Bjarkøya]]. According to the [[Norse saga|sagas]], Tore Hund [[Spear|speared]] King [[Olaf II of Norway|Olav Haraldsson]] at the [[Battle of Stiklestad]]. He also traded and fought in [[Bjarmaland]], today the area of [[Arkhangelsk]] in northern [[Russia]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bandlien |first=Bjørn |title=Bjarmeland |url=https://snl.no/Bjarmeland |access-date=May 2, 2023 |website=[[Store norske leksikon]] |language=no}}</ref> [[Trondenes]] (near today's [[Harstad (town)|Harstad]]) was also a central Viking power centre, and seems to have been a gathering place.