Haparanda Municipality

Haparanda Municipality (Swedish: Haparanda kommun), (Finnish: Haaparannan kunta) is a municipality in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden. Its seat is located in Haparanda (Finnish: Haaparanta).

Haparanda Municipality Haparanda kommun
Municipality
Haparanda Railway Station
Coat of arms
Country	Sweden
County	Norrbotten County
Seat	Haparanda
Area [1]
• Total	1,868.27 km^2 (721.34 sq mi)
• Land	922.76 km^2 (356.28 sq mi)
• Water	945.51 km^2 (365.06 sq mi)
	Area as of 1 January 2014.
Population  (31 December 2019)[2]
• Total	9,685
• Density	5.2/km^2 (13/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	SE
Province	Norrbotten
Municipal code	2583
Website	www.haparanda.se

In 1967 the "City of Haparanda" was merged with the rural municipalities Karl Gustav and Nedertorneå. Since 1971 Haparanda, like all other municipalities of Sweden, is a municipality of unitary type. However, it prefers to use the title stad ("city") for the whole territory, including the non-urban parts.

Geography

In Sweden, Haparanda Municipality borders Övertorneå Municipality to the north and Kalix Municipality to the west.

Haparanda Municipality is located on the western side of where the Torne River discharges into the Bay of Bothnia. On the other side of the river lies the Finnish town Tornio (Swedish: Torneå). Haparanda and Tornio jointly call themselves "EuroCity".

Although Haparanda has a boat harbor, it is not accessible for larger vessels and is not, as often thought, the Baltic Sea's northernmost port, that honor most probably belonging to Töre further west on the Swedish coast.

The municipality includes the Haparanda archipelago, with 652 islands in the bay of Bothnia, part of the larger Norrbotten archipelago.[3] The Haparanda Archipelago National Park lies within the Haparanda group of islands. It includes the larger islands of Sandskär and Seskar Furö, and some smaller islands and skerries.[4] Some of the other islands in the Haparanda archipelago include Hanhinkari, Kataja, Seskarö, Skomakaren, Stora Hamnskär, Stora Hepokari and Torne-Furö.[5]

Localities

There are five localities (or urban areas) in Haparanda Municipality:[6]

#	Locality	Population
1	Haparanda	4,778
2	Marielund	1,865
3	Seskarö	498
4	Nikkala	447
5	Karungi	232

The municipal seat in bold

Politics and government

Distribution of the 35 seats in the municipal council after the 2010 election:

• Social Democratic Party 21
• Moderate Party 6
• Centre Party 4
• Left Party 3
• Christian Democrats 1

Results of the 2010 Swedish general election in Haparanda:

• Social Democratic Party 60.4%
• Moderate Party 17.2%
• Centre Party 7.3%
• Left Party 4.3%
• Sweden Democrats 3.8%
• Christian Democrats 2.6%
• Green Party 2.3%
• Liberal People's Party 1.5%

Twin towns – sister cities

Haparanda is twinned with:

• Hammerfest, Norway
• Kovdor, Russia
• Širvintos, Lithuania

See also

• Sweden Finns
• Meänkieli
• List of islands of the Haparanda archipelago

References

1. "Statistiska centralbyrån, Kommunarealer den 1 januari 2014" (in Swedish). Statistics Sweden. 2014-01-01. Archived from the original (Microsoft Excel) on 2016-09-27. Retrieved 2014-04-18.
2. "Folkmängd i riket, län och kommuner 31 december 2019" (in Swedish). Statistics Sweden. February 20, 2020. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
3. "About the Bay of Bothnia". Bottenvikens skärgård. Archived from the original on 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2013-09-30.
4. "Haparanda Skärgård National Park". Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved 2013-10-02.
5. "Öar i Haparanda skärgård". bottenviken.se. Retrieved 2013-10-10.
6. Statistics Sweden as of December 31, 2005

External links

• Haparanda Municipality - Official site
• Haparanda-Tornio - Official tourism site