Luopioinen is a former municipality of

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 ...

, situated about from

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

. It is part of the

Pirkanmaa Pirkanmaa (; sv, Birkaland; la, Birkaria, link=no), also known as ''Tampere Region'' in government documents, is a region of Finland. It borders the regions of Satakunta, South Ostrobothnia, Central Finland, Päijät-Häme, Kanta-Häme an ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

and in 2007 it was joined to the municipality of

Pälkäne Pälkäne () is a municipality of Finland. It is part of the Pirkanmaa region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which . The population density is . Onkkaala is the administrative center of the municipality. Tamper ...

. It is a rural town containing a few lakes, most famous being lake

Kukkia Kukkia is a medium-sized lake in Finland. It is a part of a chain of lakes that begins from the lakes Lummene, Vehkajärvi and Vesijako at the drainage divide between the Kokemäenjoki and Kymijoki basins and flows westwards from there through th ...

History

Luopioinen was established during the Middle Ages, though the exact date is unclear. It remained a small village until 1693 when it acquired a chapel. At this time, Luopioinen was a part of the

Hauho Hauho is a former municipality of Finland. It was situated in the province of Southern Finland and is today a part of the region of Tavastia Proper (Kanta-Häme / Egentliga Tavastland). Hauho was amalgamated with the municipality of Hämeenlinna ...

parish and was also known as ''Vesikansa''. It became an independent parish in 1880, by then the alternative name ''Vesikansa'' had fallen out of use. Aitoo was first mentioned in 1890. Luopioinen was consolidated with Pälkäne in 2007.

Name

The name of Luopioinen comes from either a dialectal noun ''luopa'' meaning a narrow strait or from the verb ''luoda''. It is unrelated to the word ''luopio'' meaning "apostate".

Statistics

* Established in 1868 * Population 2,372 (as of December 31, 2003) * Age distribution ** 0–14 yrs 14.9% ** 15–64 yrs 57.1% ** 65– yrs 28.0% * Total area 391.8 km², of which 74.3 km² are lakes * Income tax percentage 18.50% * Unemployment rate 9.3% (as of 2002)

People born in Luopioinen

* August Hyöki (1874–1960)

External links

Pälkäne municipality

References

Populated places disestablished in 2007 Former municipalities of Finland {{WesternFinland-geo-stub