Gislaved Municipality () is a

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

Jönköping County Jönköping County () is a county or '' län'' in southern Sweden. It borders the counties of Halland, Västra Götaland, Östergötland, Kalmar and Kronoberg. The total county population was 356,291 inhabitants in September 2017. The capita ...

in southern

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, with its seat located in the town Gislaved. The municipality was created in 1974, when Gislaved locality where amalgamated with the surrounding rural municipalities to form an entity of unitary type. There are seventeen original units making up the present municipality. Within Sweden, and as part of Gnosjö region, it's regarded as being both cultural and industrially dominated. The municipality is notably home to

Scandinavian Raceway Anderstorp Raceway, previously known as Scandinavian Raceway, is a motorsport race track in Anderstorp (Gislaved Municipality), Sweden and the sole Nordic host of a Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, when the Swedish Grand Prix was held ...

in Anderstorp, the only Swedish circuit to host a

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

Grand Prix as it held the

Swedish Grand Prix The Swedish Grand Prix () was a round of the Formula One World Championship from 1973 to 1978. It took place at the Scandinavian Raceway in Anderstorp ( Gislaved Municipality), about from Jönköping, in Småland, Sweden. The first race to hold ...

for six years in the 1970s.

History

The municipality has been inhabited for a long time, but without any significant

urban area An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbani ...

s. At the turn of the 19th century it contained some 700 inhabitants. By 1949 it was eligible to receive rights as a ''

köping ''Köping'' was a Swedish denomination for a market town since the Middle Ages, derived from the Old Norse word '' kaupang''. The designation was officially abolished with the municipal reform of 1971, when Sweden was subdivided into the Munic ...

'', comparable to town rights. A

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

was designed for the occasion, traditionally used by the

cities of Sweden This is a list of cities in modern Sweden that once enjoyed city privileges, thus were entitled to call themselves town (, plural ). The year indicates the year they were established or when they were granted a royal charter. The list does ...

. When the municipal reform was carried out in the 1970s, Gislaved adapted the still unused coat of arms as the municipal arms. The arms depict the insignia for a historical

hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory sleeping 4–20 people, with shared use of a lounge and usually a kitchen. Rooms can be private or shared - mixe ...

nearby. There are 19 churches in the municipality, the oldest from 1350. In the small town of Burseryd is a church bell that is even older. Its inscription was made with the

Futhark Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets, known as runic rows, runic alphabets or futharks (also, see '' futhark'' vs ''runic alphabet''), native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were primarily used to represent a sound value (a ...

alphabet and reads in translation "The year Anno Domine 1238 was this bell made. Bero wrote the inscription". It is today the second oldest church bell in Sweden.

Geography

There are six

nature reserves A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geolog ...

in the municipality. Rare plants and animals include the provincial flower the Twinflower (Linnaea borealis), the only flower named after the botanist

Carl von Linné Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organi ...

. Lake

Bolmen Bolmen () is a lake in Småland, Sweden. Covering 184 km2, and with a maximum depth of 37 m, it supplies a considerable part of Skåne with fresh water by means of an 82-km long tunnel, the Bolmen Water Tunnel, built during the 1970s and 8 ...

lies in the south-east part of the municipality, with its main part in the

Ljungby Municipality Ljungby Municipality () is a municipality in Kronoberg County, southern Sweden, where the town Ljungby is seat. In 1971 the ''City of Ljungby'' (1936-1970) was amalgamated with the rural municipalities surrounding it, thus creating the present m ...

. It is the tenth largest lake in Sweden and offers fishing, canoeing and other nature activities. Gislaved used to have a large tire factory under the same name as the town but it has shut down.

Localities

There are eight

s (also called a Tätort or locality) in Gislaved Municipality. In the table the localities are listed according to the size of the population as of December 31, 2015. The municipal seat is in bold characters.

Demographics

This is a demographic table based on Gislaved Municipality's electoral districts in the

2022 Swedish general election General elections were held in Sweden on 11 September 2022 to elect the 349 members of the Riksdag who in turn elected the Prime Minister of Sweden. Under the constitution, regional and municipal elections were also held on the same day. The pr ...

sourced from SVT's election platform, in turn taken from SCB official statistics. In total there were 29,515 inhabitants, including 21,367 Swedish citizens of voting age. 41.4% voted for the left coalition and 57.7% for the right coalition. Indicators are in percentage points except population totals and income.

Politics

Municipal council

Mayors

List of mayors

Timeline

Gislaved Municipality has for most of its history been governed by the centre-right parties, with the Centre Party heading the municipality from 1974 to 1991 and again since 2018. The Moderate Party headed the municipality from 1991 to 1994 and from 2006 to 2014 while the Social Democrats did so from 1994 to 2006 and again from 2014 to 2018. The Social Democrats have been the largest party in the council since its founding in 1974. Gislaved Municipality is currently governed by a majority coalition between the

Social Democrats Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...

, the

Moderate Party The Moderate Party ( , , M), commonly referred to as the Moderates ( ), is a Liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative* * * * * List of political parties in Sweden, political party in Sweden. The party generally supports tax cuts, the free ma ...

, the Centre Party, the Westbo Party and the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

. The coalition is led by Anton Sjödell from the

, who is also

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

since 1 January 2025, and Niclas Palmgren from the Moderate Party who is President of the City Council. Ruth Johannesson from the local ''Civic Party in Gisalved'' heads the opposition.

Notable people

Locality within Gislaved Municipality in parentheses. * Ann-Charlotte Alverfors, author (Reftele) * Darijan Bojanic, professional footballer (Gislaved) * Johan Büser, politician (Anderstorp) * Lars Danielsson, bassist, composer, and record producer (Smålandsstenar) * Samuel Fröler, actor (Reftele) * Oscar Hiljemark, professional footballer (Gislaved) * Simon Hjalmarsson, professional ice hockey player (Gislaved) *

Bengt-Anders Johansson Bengt-Anders Johansson (born 7 March 1951) is a Swedish politician of the Moderate Party. He was Member of the Riksdag from 2002 to 2014, representing his home constituency of Jönköping County. Prior to his service in the Riksdag, Johansson ...

, politician (Smålandsstenar) * Annie Oliv, model (Gislaved) * Maria Rydqvist, cross-country skier (Smålandsstenar) * Johan Runesson, orienteering competitor (Smålandsstenar) * Henrik Skoog, distance runner (Smålandsstenar) * Iréne Theorin, dramatic soprano opera singer (Broaryd) * Åsa Westlund, politician (Anderstorp)

Sights

The

, near Anderstorp, was built in 1968.

References

Statistics Sweden

External links

Gislaved Municipality
- Official site {{authority control Municipalities of Jönköping County