{{refimprove, date=December 2007 Laponia ( sv, Lappland) was a historical

Swedish province The provinces of Sweden ( sv, Sveriges landskap) are historical, geographical and cultural regions. Sweden has 25 provinces; they have no administrative function (except for in some cases as sport districts), but remain historical legacies and a ...

, or ''landscape'', in the north of Sweden which evolved from

Lappmarken Lappmarken was an earlier Swedish name for the northern part of the old Kingdom of Sweden inhabited by the Sami people. In addition to the present-day Swedish Lapland, it also covered Västerbotten, Jämtland and Härjedalen, as well as the Finn ...

. In 1809, Sweden ceded the eastern part, along with

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, to the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, which in effect created a

Swedish Lapland Lapland, also known by its Swedish name Lappland (, fi, Lappi, la, Lapponia), is a province in northernmost Sweden. It borders Jämtland, Ångermanland, Västerbotten, Norrbotten, Norway and Finland. Nearly a quarter of Sweden's land area ...

and

Finnish Lapland Lapland ( fi, Lappi ; se, Lappi; smn, Laapi; sv, Lappland; la, Lapponia, links=no) is the largest and northernmost region of Finland. The 21 municipalities in the region cooperate in a Regional Council. Lapland borders the region of North O ...

. Today, the Swedish part serves no administrative purpose. On the Finnish side, there was a Province of Lapland (much larger to the south, especially by population, and where there were no Sami for many centuries) from 1938 until 2010, when Finnish provinces were discontinued, and the province was replaced by the Region of Lapland. Lapland is considered in some nations — notably the United Kingdom, Ireland, Serbia, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Romania and France — to be the home of

Father Christmas Father Christmas is the traditional English name for the personification of Christmas. Although now known as a Christmas gift-bringer, and typically considered to be synonymous with Santa Claus, he was originally part of a much older and unrela ...

(more widely known as Santa Claus).

Population

The current population of Swedish Lapland plus the municipalities

Enontekiö Enontekiö (; sme, Eanodat ; sv, Enontekis; smn, Iänudâh; sms, Jeänõk) is a municipality in the Finnish part of Lapland with approx. inhabitants. It is situated in the outermost northwest of the country and occupies a large and very spars ...

(Eanodat),

Inari Inari may refer to: Shinto * Inari Ōkami, a Shinto spirit ** Mount Inari in Japan, site of Fushimi Inari-taisha, the main Shinto shrine to Inari ** Inari Shrine, shrines to the Shinto god Inari * Inari-zushi, a type of sushi Places * Inari, ...

(Ánar),

Utsjoki Utsjoki (; sme, Ohcejohka ; smn, Uccjuuhâ; sms, Uccjokk; no, Utsjok) is a municipality in Finland, the northernmost in the country. It is in Lapland and borders Norway as well as the municipality of Inari. The municipality was founded in 18 ...

(Ohcejohka),

Muonio Muonio (previously called ''Muonionniska'', se, Muoná) is a municipality of Finland. The town is located in far northern Finland above the Arctic Circle on the country's western border, within the area of the former Lappi (Lapland) province. ...

(Muoná),

Kittilä Kittilä ( se, Gihttel, smn, Kittâl, sms, Kihttel) is a municipality of Finland and a popular holiday resort. It is located in northern Finland north of the Arctic Circle within the Lapland region. The municipality has a population of () and ...

(Gihttel) and

Sodankylä Sodankylä (; sme, Soađegilli ; smn, Suáđigil; sms, Suäʹđjel) is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the region of Lapland, and lies at the northern end of Highway 5 ( E63) and along Highway 4 ( E75). The Kitinen River flows nea ...

(Soad'egilli) in Finnish Lapland constitutes 125,151 individuals. The largest city is Kiruna (Giron) with 18,154 inhabitants.See sourced data on the Wikipedia pages of these localities

Historical districts

Before being split, Laponia was divided into juridical districts which were: * Arjeplog Lapland Court District * Arvidsjaur Lapland Court District * Enonteki Lapland Court District * Gällivare Lapland Court District * Jokkmokk Lapland Court District * Jukkasjärvi Lapland Court District * Lycksele Lapland Court District * Norsjö and Malå Court District * Åsele Lapland Court District

Population

Historical districts

References

See also