Vilppula was a former municipality of

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, ...

. Neighbouring

Mänttä Mänttä is a former town and municipality of Finland. It was merged with the municipality of Vilppula to form Mänttä-Vilppula on 1 January 2009. The place name ''Mänttä'' comes from an old house which Tuomas Niilonpoika Mäntsä (1570–1 ...

was merged into it on 1 January 2009 to form the municipality of

Mänttä-Vilppula Mänttä-Vilppula (; , also ) is a List of cities and towns in Finland, town and Municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. The municipalities of Mänttä and Vilppula were consolidated into a single municipality on January 1, 2009. It is ...

. The municipality was unilingually Finnish. It was located in the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of Western Finland and was part of the

Pirkanmaa Pirkanmaa (; ; ), also known as ''Tampere Region'' in government documents, is a region of Finland. It borders the regions of Satakunta, South Ostrobothnia, Central Finland, Päijät-Häme, Kanta-Häme and Southwest Finland. Most of the wate ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

. The municipality had a population of 5,457 in 2005 and covered an area of 571.26 km² of which 99.90 km² was water. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was 10.5 inhabitants per km². The work force mainly consisted of industry and service, these accounting for 50 and 39 percent of total workforce. Population was estimated to be at a slight decline. The Kolho village in Vilppula is located to the north. Another village, Pohjaslahti, is located northwest from the Vilppula centre. These continue to exist as villages of the new Mänttä-Vilppula municipality. Vilppula is also known for being the location of the 1918 Battle of Vilppula during the

Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War was a civil war in Finland in 1918 fought for the leadership and control of the country between Whites (Finland), White Finland and the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (Red Finland) during the country's transition fr ...

External links

Mänttä-Vilppula
– Official site Populated places disestablished in 2009 2009 disestablishments in Finland Former municipalities of Finland Mänttä-Vilppula {{WesternFinland-geo-stub