Because of this, the population and area data for this town has not been separately tracked by Statistics Norway.

The hilly terrain makes the center of Skien crowded with a main north-south axis.

There is a prison at Rødmyr, a jogging track at Klosterskogen, and a sports and swimming hall (Skienshallen).

Skien is one of Norway's oldest cities, with an urban history dating back to the Middle Ages, and received privileges as a market town in 1358.

It was also one of Norway's most internationally oriented cities, with extensive contact with its export markets in the Low Countries, the United Kingdom, and Denmark.

It retained its position as Eastern Norway's leading commercial city until the 19th century, when it gradually started to lose importance to the emerging capital of Christiania following the Napoleonic Wars.

[4] The city was the birthplace of playwright Henrik Ibsen, and many of his famous dramas are set in places reminiscent of early 19th-century Skien.

[5] The town of Skien was established as an urban municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law).

On 1 January 1856, an area of Gjerpen Municipality (population: 1,286) was annexed by the growing town of Skien.

It is not known when the church went out of use, but Bratsberg farm burned down in 1156. in 1576, Peder Claussøn Friis reviewed it as a ruin.