Oskarshamn 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' ...

Kalmar County Kalmar County () is a Counties of Sweden, county or ''län'' in southern Sweden. It borders the counties of Kronoberg County, Kronoberg, Jönköping County, Jönköping, Blekinge County, Blekinge and Östergötland County, Östergötland. To the ...

in south-eastern

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 ...

, where the city

Oskarshamn Oskarshamn is a coastal city and the seat of Oskarshamn Municipality, Kalmar County, Sweden with 17,258 inhabitants in 2010. History Etymology Döderhultsvik was the original name before a town charter was granted in 1856. The name was then chan ...

is seat. The amalgamations in the present municipality took place in 1967 when three rural municipalities joined the ''City of Oskarshamn'', which was transformed into a municipality of unitary type in 1971. In 1966 construction started on the first

nuclear power plant A nuclear power plant (NPP), also known as a nuclear power station (NPS), nuclear generating station (NGS) or atomic power station (APS) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power st ...

, OKG, within the present municipality. Since then two more reactors have been built and the plant today produces about 10% of Sweden's

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

. In October 2020 the municipal council voted in favour of the building of Forsmark nuclear waste repository, with the final decision needing to be made by the Swedish government.

Coat of arms

Oskarshamn was named after King

Oscar I of Sweden Oscar I (born Joseph François Oscar Bernadotte; 4 July 1799 – 8 July 1859) was King of Sweden and List of Norwegian monarchs, Norway from 8 March 1844 until his death. He was the second monarch of the House of Bernadotte. The only child of Ki ...

. The top of the coat of arms show the insignia of the King. In the other fields there are symbols for shipping (the anchor), trade (the staff of Mercury) and wealth (the cornucopia). Its current design stems from 1942, but it basically only differers from the old in the alignment of the symbols. The coat of arms was re-used for the new municipality after 1971 and the arms of Döderhult and Misterhult became obsolete.

Localities

There are nine

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 (also called localities, Swedish: ''tätorter'') in Oskarshamn Municipality. In the table the localities are listed according to the size of the population as of December 31, 2005. The municipal seat is in bold characters. 1) A minor part of Emsfors is in Mönsterås Municipality

Demographics

This is a demographic table based on Oskarshamn 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 27,180 residents, including 20,862 Swedish citizens of voting age. 41.6 % voted for the left coalition and 57.2 % for the right coalition. Indicators are in percentage points except population totals and income.

Politics

The

Swedish Social Democratic Party The Swedish Social Democratic Party, formally the Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party ( , S or SAP), usually referred to as The Social Democrats ( ), is a social democratic political party in Sweden. The party is member of the Progressiv ...

has been governing the city and later the municipality since 1932, however not always forming an absolute majority. It usually builds a majority with the Left Party of Sweden. All parties that are represented in the

Riksdag The Riksdag ( , ; also or , ) is the parliament and the parliamentary sovereignty, supreme decision-making body of the Kingdom of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral parliament with 349 members (), elected proportional rep ...

are also represented in the municipal assembly '' kommunfullmäktige''.

Media

Oskarshamn has two local newspapers: ''Oskarshamns-Tidningen'' (

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

) and ''Nyheterna'' (

social democratic Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

Notability

The Blå Jungfrun is a small island outside the coast, between the mainland and the island of

Öland Öland (, ; ; sometimes written ''Oland'' internationally) is the second-largest Swedish island and the smallest of the traditional provinces of Sweden. Öland has an area of and is located in the Baltic Sea just off the coast of Småland. ...

, and is classified as a

national park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

References

Statistics Sweden

External links

Oskarshamn Municipality
- Official site
IK Oskarshamn
- Official site of IK Oskarshamn, Oskarshamn's hockey team {{Authority control Municipalities of Kalmar County