Torsby 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' ...

Värmland County Värmland County () is a county or '' län'' in west central Sweden. It borders the Swedish counties of Dalarna, Örebro and Västra Götaland, as well as the Norwegian counties of Østfold, Akershus and Innlandet to the west. The title of Duke ...

in west central

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 ...

, bordering

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 ...

. Its seat is located in the town of

Torsby Torsby () is a locality and the seat of Torsby Municipality in Värmland County, Sweden with 4,049 inhabitants in 2010. Fortum Ski Tunnel Torsby, the world's longest ski tunnel, is located in Torsby. There is an airport located near the locali ...

. The name ''Torsby'' means

Thor Thor (from ) is a prominent list of thunder gods, god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred g ...

's village. The present municipality consists of eight original local government entities (as of 1863): Dalby, Fryksände, Lekvattnet, Norra Finnskoga, Norra Ny, Nyskoga, Södra Finnskoga, Vitsand and Östmark. In 1952 they were grouped into four larger units and in 1974 they were all united. There is much Finnish heritage in Torsby Municipality.

Localities

Population centers in the municipality include: *

Ambjörby Ambjörby is a locality situated in Torsby Municipality, Värmland County, 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 ...

* Oleby * Östmark * Stöllet * Sysslebäck *

(seat)

Transportation

is the end station on the Fryksdal branchline from

Karlstad Karlstad (, ) is the 20th-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Karlstad Municipality, the capital of Värmland County, and the largest city in the province Värmland in Sweden. The city proper had 67,122 inhabitants in 2020 with 97,233 inhabitan ...

via Kil. There is a small

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

with scheduled flights to

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

, whilst the nearest international airport is

Gardermoen Oslo Airport () , alternatively referred to as Oslo Gardermoen Airport or simply Gardermoen, is an international airport serving Oslo, the capital and most populous city of Norway. The airport is the second largest in Scandinavia and the Nordi ...

. The road, ''E45'', passes through the municipality.

Sport

Sven-Göran Eriksson Sven-Göran Eriksson (; 5 February 1948 – 26 August 2024) was a Swedish association football, football player and Coach (sport), manager. After a playing career as a right-back, Eriksson went on to experience major success in club management ...

and

Marcus Berg Bengt Erik Markus Berg (; born 17 August 1986) is a Swedish former professional association football, footballer who played as a striker (association football), striker. He is currently assistant coach for Allsvenskan club IFK Göteborg. Beginn ...

have their roots in

. The municipality has a number of

skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow for basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the International S ...

centres for both

alpine skiing Alpine skiing, or downhill skiing, is the pastime of sliding down snow-covered slopes on skis with fixed-heel Ski binding, bindings, unlike other types of skiing (Cross-country skiing, cross-country, Telemark skiing, Telemark, or ski jumping) ...

(Hovfjället and Branäs) and

cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing whereby skiers traverse snow-covered terrain without use of ski lifts or other assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreational activity; however, some still use it as a m ...

(Mattila and Långberget). A cross-country ski tunnel, which is also the world's longest, opened on June 16, 2006. Stjerneskolan, a senior

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

, specializes in cross-country skiing and

biathlon The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It is treated as a race, with contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into shooting rounds. The shooting rounds are not ti ...

. The most famous former pupil is

Gunde Svan Gunde Anders Svan (born 12 January 1962) is a Swedish former cross-country skier and auto racing driver. During his cross-country skiing career he won a total of four gold, one silver and one bronze medals at the Winter Olympics. Svan won a total ...

. Carl Johan Bergman, who was born in

Ekshärad Ekshärad is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality in Hagfors Municipality, Värmland County, Sweden with 1,074 inhabitants in 2010. Ekshärad is most famous for its historically rich church. Ekshärad is also well known for the unique ''Ekshäring'' ...

, also studied there for a year.

Demographics

This is a demographic table based on Torsby 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 11,448 inhabitants, with 8,766 Swedish citizens of voting age. 44.9% voted for the left coalition and 53.9% for the right coalition. Indicators are in percentage points except population totals and income.

Elections

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 ...

These are the local results of the Riksdag elections since the 1972 municipality reform. The results of the

Sweden Democrats The Sweden Democrats ( , SD ) is a Nationalism, nationalist and Right-wing populism, right-wing populist political party in Sweden founded in 1988. As of 2024, it is the largest member of Sweden's Right-wing politics, right-wing bloc and the sec ...

were not published by SCB between 1988 and 1998 at a municipal level to the party's small nationwide size at the time. "Votes" denotes valid votes, whereas "Turnout" denotes also blank and invalid votes. Blocs This lists the relative strength of the socialist and centre-right blocs since 1973, but parties not elected to the Riksdag are inserted as "other", including the Sweden Democrats results from 1988 to 2006, but also the Christian Democrats pre-1991 and the Greens in 1982, 1985 and 1991. The sources are identical to the table above. The coalition or government mandate marked in bold formed the government after the election. New Democracy got elected in 1991 but are still listed as "other" due to the short lifespan of the party.

References

External links

Torsby Municipality
- Official site
Branäs alpine skiing
{{authority control Municipalities of Värmland County fi:Torsby