Socken ( or ) is the name used for a part of a county in Sweden. In Denmark, similar areas are known as , in Norway or and in Finland or . A is a rural area formed around a church, typically in the Middle Ages. A socken originally served as a parish. Later, until the Swedish municipal reforms of 1862, it also served as a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

or an administrative parish, and became a predecessor to today's

municipalities of Sweden The municipalities of Sweden () are its generally smaller but co-equal local government Legal entity, entities. There are 290 municipalities which are responsible for a large proportion of local services, including schools, emergency services a ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

and

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. Today it is a traditional area with frozen borders, in Sweden typically identical to those of the early 20th century rural parishes. The socken also served as a registration unit for buildings, in Sweden recently replaced by identical registration districts as registration unit. A socken consists of several villages and industry localities (

company town A company town is a place where all or most of the stores and housing in the town are owned by the same company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schoo ...

s), and is typically named after the main village and the original church.

Sweden

History

Socken, in

Old Swedish Old Swedish ( Modern Swedish: ) is the name for two distinct stages of the Swedish language that were spoken in the Middle Ages: Early Old Swedish (), spoken from about 1225 until about 1375, and Late Old Swedish (), spoken from about 1375 unti ...

(compare: Danish and

bokmål Bokmål () (, ; ) is one of the official written standards for the Norwegian language, alongside Nynorsk. Bokmål is by far the most used written form of Norwegian today, as it is adopted by 85% to 90% of the population in Norway. There is no cou ...

''sogn'',

nynorsk Nynorsk (; ) is one of the two official written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language (''Landsmål''), parallel to the Da ...

''sokn'') is an archaic name for the original country church parishes, . It also describes a secular area, a (rural area locality) or a taxation area, a . In the Nordic countries a socken was an administrative area consisting of several villages or localities in much the same way as the

civil parishes in England In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, but the concept is not used in reference to towns. A socken had a socken church, it was governed by a socken council and it was the predecessor to modern municipalities In 1862, the (church sockens) and the (rural area localities) in Sweden were abolished as administrative areas during municipality reforms. The (taxation area) remained in use until ''Fastighetsdatareformen'' (Reform for registration of real property) 1976–1995 was complete. No further alterations to the sockens was made after this. On 1January 2016, a new administrative division and area for

Statistics Sweden Statistics Sweden ( ; SCB, ) is the Swedish government agency operating under the Ministry of Finance and responsible for producing official statistics for decision-making, debate and research. The agency's responsibilities include: * developin ...

, registration districts, was introduced in Sweden. Geographically, the districts correspond with the parishes of the Church of Sweden as of 31December 1999. About 85% of the old sockens corresponds with the new districts. Even though the term socken is no longer used administratively in Sweden, it is still used for cataloging and registering historical archives (

Swedish National Heritage Board The Swedish National Heritage Board (; RAÄ) is a Swedish government agency responsible for World Heritage Sites and other national heritage monuments and historical environments. It is governed by the Ministry of Culture. The goals of the agen ...

botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

research,

toponymy Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' ( proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for a proper na ...

and by local historical societies. Socken is a convenient parameter for these purposes since it does not change with time.

Lists of sockens

* List of sockens in Sweden on Swedish Wikipedia, :sv:Kategori:Socknar i Sverige

References

External links

Swedish Tax Agency, Parishes in Sweden, historical–current.

Swedish National Heritage Board, List of towns and sockens.
{{Expand Swedish, Socken, date=June 2014 Types of populated places History of Scandinavia Administrative divisions of Sweden

Sweden

History

Lists of sockens

See also

References

Further reading

External links