Kramfors () is a locality and the seat of

Kramfors Municipality Kramfors Municipality (''Kramfors kommun'') is a municipality in Västernorrland County, northern Sweden. Its seat is located in the town Kramfors. The rural municipality of ''Gudmundrå'' was in 1947 made one of the last administrative cities ...

Västernorrland County Västernorrland County ( sv, Västernorrlands län) is a county ('' län'') in the north of Sweden. It is bordered by the counties of Gävleborg, Jämtland, Västerbotten and the Gulf of Bothnia. The name ''Västernorrland'' means "Western ...

, Sweden. It had a population of 5,990 inhabitants in 2010. The town grew on the western bank of the Ångerman river in the 19th century as harvested logs were floated downriver to be processed at local sawmills and

pulp mill A pulp mill is a manufacturing facility that converts wood chips or other plant fiber sources into a thick fiber board which can be shipped to a paper mill for further processing. Pulp can be manufactured using mechanical, semi-chemical, or fu ...

s. Christopher Kramm introduced the river's first steam-driven saw, naming it after himself. The name of the town in turn derives from his name and the word ("

rapid Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade ...

"). In the 1960s and 1970s, as the timber industry went into decline, the population of Kramfors declined as well. The original settlement of Kramfors was located in Gudmundrå municipality, but in 1889 received the status of a so-called or

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle ...

, still remaining part of the original municipality. In 1947 it was awarded

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 de ...

status, one of the last in the country to do so. Since municipal reform in 1974, it serves as the seat of Kramfors Municipality. The municipality of Kramfors has about 20,000 inhabitants, and is situated almost in the middle of Sweden's east coast in Northern Sweden. Within 100 kilometres from Kramfors there is a population of about 250,000 people, and within 200 kilometres about half a million people, and the large Norrland towns of Sundsvall and

Umeå Umeå ( , , , locally ; South Westrobothnian: ;). fi, Uumaja; sju, Ubmeje; sma, Upmeje; se, Ubmi) is a city in northeast Sweden. It is the seat of Umeå Municipality and the capital of Västerbotten County. Situated on the Ume River, U ...

are within commuting distance. Kramfors is probably best known for its beautiful and varied

High Coast The High Coast ( sv, Höga Kusten) is a part of the coast of Sweden on the Gulf of Bothnia, in the Ångermanland province of northeast Sweden, centered in the area of the municipalities of Kramfors, Härnösand, Sollefteå and Örnsköldsvik. I ...

landscape, which has been given World Heritage status, and which provides the inhabitants with the opportunity of an outdoors lifestyle. One of the

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...

academies of Sweden is situated in Kramfors. Kramfors also hosts the

Folke Bernadotte Academy The Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA) ( sv, Folke Bernadotteakademin) is the Swedish government agency for peace, security and development. FBA conducts training, research and method development in order to strengthen peacebuilding and statebuilding ...

, a government agency focused on improving international conflict and crisis management, with a special interest in peace operations. It offers courses in peacekeeping intelligence and information operations that are open to all nations and to non-governmental organizations.

Notable people

* Sune Bergman (1952–2021), former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two o ...

player. *

Einar Blidberg Vice Admiral Carl Einar Blidberg (20 September 1906 – 21 March 1993) was a Swedish Navy officer. Blidberg served as Chief of the Naval Staff from 1957 to 1961, Chief of the Coastal Fleet from 1962 to 1966, and as commanding officer of the Nav ...

(1906–1993), a

Swedish Navy The Swedish Navy ( sv, Svenska marinen) is the naval branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. It is composed of surface and submarine naval units – the Fleet () – as well as marine units, the Amphibious Corps (). In Swedish, vessels ...

officer. *

Erika Grahm Erika Maria Grahm (born 26 January 1991) is a Swedish retired ice hockey forward and current general manager of Brynäs IF Dam in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL). During her playing career, she was a two-time Olympian with the Swedis ...

(born 1991), former professional ice hockey player. *

Mario Kempe Mario Kempe (born 19 September 1988) is a Swedish professional ice hockey right winger who is currently an unrestricted free agent. He most recently played for HC Dinamo Minsk of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and played for the Arizo ...

(born 1988), current KHL player for the

HC Dinamo Minsk Hockey Club Dinamo Minsk (russian: Дина́мо-Минск; be, Дынама-Мінск, ''Dynama-Minsk'') is an ice hockey team based in Minsk, Belarus. They are members of the Tarasov Division of the Kontinental Hockey League. Dinamo has q ...

. *

Adrian Kempe Adrian Kempe (born 13 September 1996) is a Swedish professional ice hockey player for the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL). Kempe was selected by the Kings in the first round (29th overall) of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft. Pl ...

(born 1996), current

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

player for the

Los Angeles Kings The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference and was founded on June 5, 1967, after Jack Kent ...

. * Sandra Näslund (born 1996), a

freestyle skier Freestyle skiing is a skiing discipline comprising aerials, moguls, cross, half-pipe, slopestyle and big air as part of the Winter Olympics. It can consist of a skier performing aerial flips and spins and can include skiers sliding rails ...

. *

Mattias Norlinder Mattias Norlinder (born 12 April 2000) is a Swedish professional ice hockey defenceman for the Laval Rocket of the American Hockey League (AHL) while under contract to the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was sele ...

(born 2000), current NHL player for the

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...

. * Anna Olsson (born 1976), Winter Olympic

cross-country skier Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...

. *

Gunnar Östberg Gunnar Östberg (February 4, 1923 – December 25, 2017) was a Swedish cross-country skier who competed in the 1950s. He finished ninth in the 18 km event at the 1952 Winter Olympics The 1952 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VI ...

(1923–2017), Winter Olympic cross-country skier. *

Tobias Viklund Tobias Viklund (born 8 May 1986) is a Swedish professional ice hockey defenceman, who is currently under contract with Modo Hockey of the HockeyAllsvenskan (Allsv). Playing career Viklund joined Russian club, Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg of ...

(born 1986), professional ice hockey player. *

Magnus Wernblom Magnus Wernblom (born February 3, 1973) is a Swedish former professional ice hockey forward who spent most of his active career playing for Modo Hockey in the Swedish Elitserien league, where he holds the franchise scoring record for most all-tim ...

(born 1973), former professional ice hockey player.

References

{{authority control Populated places in Kramfors Municipality Ångermanland Coastal cities and towns in Sweden Municipal seats of Västernorrland County Swedish municipal seats