The parish of Skouger was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). In 1843, Skouger Municipality was enlarged by merging with the small neighboring municipality of Strømsgodset (population: 731) and by adding an unpopulated area of Eiker Municipality (from neighboring Buskerud county). After this change, Skouger had 2,568 residents. On 1 January 1870, an area of northern Skoger (population: 1,363) was transferred into the neighboring town of Drammen (and also switching to the neighboring Buskerud county).[6]
During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, Skoger Municipality (population: 14,682) was merged with Drammen Municipality (population: 31,478) to form a new, larger Drammen Municipality. Since Drammen was in the neighboring county of Buskerud, Skoger also had to join Buskerud county.[6]
Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the village of Skoger (Old Norse: Skógar) since the Old Skoger Church was built there. The name is derived from the plural form of skógr which means "woodland" or "forest".[7] Prior to 1889, the name was spelled Skouger.
The municipal council(Herredsstyre) of Skoger was made up of 41 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The tables below show the historical composition of the council by political party.
^Helland, Amund (1915). "Skoger herred". VII. Jarlsberg og Larvik Amt. Tredje del. Norges land og folk (in Norwegian). Kristiania, Norway: H. Aschehoug & Company. p. 227. Retrieved 25 February 2024.