Haparanda Municipality (), () is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

Norrbotten County Norrbotten County ( sv, Norrbottens län; se, Norrbottena leatna, fi, Norrbottenin lääni) is the northernmost county or ''län'' of Sweden. It is also the largest county by land area, almost a quarter of Sweden's total area. It shares borders ...

in northern

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

. Its

seat A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but also headquarters in a wider sense. Types of seat The following are examples of different kinds of seat: * Armchair, a chair ...

is located in

Haparanda Haparanda (; fi, Haaparanta, , aspen shore or bank) is a locality and the seat of Haparanda Municipality in Norrbotten County, Sweden. It is adjacent to Tornio, Finland. Haparanda had a population of 4,856 in 2010, out of a municipal total of 10, ...

(). In 1967 the "

City A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

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 A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

") for the whole territory, including the non-urban parts.

Geography

In Sweden, Haparanda Municipality borders Övertorneå Municipality to the north and

Kalix Municipality Kalix Municipality (, ) is a municipality in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden. Its seat is located in Kalix. In 1924 Töre Municipality was detached from Nederkalix Municipality, forming a municipality of its own. In 1967 the two units were ...

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 A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...

lies the Finnish town

Tornio Tornio (; sv, Torneå; sme, Duortnus ; smn, Tuárnus) is a city and municipality in Lapland, Finland. The city forms a cross-border twin city together with Haparanda on the Swedish side. The municipality covers an area of , of which is ...

(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 The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

's northernmost port, that honor most probably belonging to

Töre Töre ( Kalix Language: ''te'or'') is a locality situated in Kalix Municipality, Norrbotten County, Sweden with 1,099 inhabitants as of 2010. Its harbour is the northernmost of the Bothnian Bay (and thus, of the Baltic Sea) that is accessible to ...

further west on the Swedish

coast The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...

. The municipality includes the Haparanda archipelago, with 652 islands in the bay of Bothnia, part of the larger Norrbotten archipelago. The

Haparanda Archipelago National Park Haparanda Archipelago National Park ( sv, Haparanda skärgårds nationalpark) is a national park in Haparanda Municipality, Norrbotten County, Sweden. The park covers part of the Haparanda archipelago in the northeast of the Bothnian Bay near the ...

lies within the Haparanda group of islands. It includes the larger islands of

Sandskär Sandskär is an island in the northeast of the Swedish sector of the Bay of Bothnia. Once used as a base for fishing and sealing, it is now part of a national park. Location Sandskär is the largest island in the Haparanda Archipelago National P ...

and

Seskar Furö Seskar Furö is an uninhabited island in the northeast of the Swedish sector of the Bay of Bothnia. It is now part of a national park. Location Seskar Furö is the second largest island in the Haparanda Archipelago National Park ( sv, Haparanda ...

, and some smaller islands and skerries. Some of the other islands in the Haparanda archipelago include

Hanhinkari Hanhinkari is an island in the northeast of the Swedish sector of the Bothnian Bay, in the Haparanda archipelago. Location Hanhinkari lies in the Haparanda archipelago, the part of the Norrbotten archipelago that is included in the Haparanda ...

, Kataja, Seskarö,

Skomakaren Skomakaren is an island in the northeast of the Swedish sector of the Bothnian Bay, in the Haparanda archipelago. Location Skomakaren ("shoemaker") is also called Suutari by the local people. It lies in the central part of the Haparanda archipel ...

, Stora Hamnskär, Stora Hepokari and Torne-Furö.

Localities

There are five localities (or urban areas) in Haparanda Municipality:Statistics Sweden as of December 31, 2005
/ref> The municipal seat in

bold In typography, emphasis is the strengthening of words in a text with a font in a different style from the rest of the text, to highlight them. It is the equivalent of prosody stress in speech. Methods and use The most common methods in W ...

Politics and government

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

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

21 *

Moderate Party The Moderate Party ( sv, Moderata samlingspartiet , ; M), commonly referred to as the Moderates ( ), is a liberal-conservative political party in Sweden. The party generally supports tax cuts, the free market, civil liberties and economic ...

6 * Centre Party 4 * Left Party 3 *

Christian Democrats __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...

1 Results of the 2010 Swedish general election in Haparanda: *

60.4% *

17.2% * Centre Party 7.3% * Left Party 4.3% * Sweden Democrats 3.8% *

2.6% *

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

2.3% * Liberal People's Party 1.5%

Twin towns – sister cities

Haparanda is twinned with: *

Hammerfest Hammerfest (; sme, Hámmerfeasta ) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. Hammerfest is the northernmost town in the world with more than 10,000 inhabitants. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Hamm ...

, Norway * Kovdor, Russia * Širvintos, Lithuania

References

External links