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Kiruna Municipality

Kiruna kommun  (Swedish)
Girona gielda  (Northern Sami)
Kierunan kunta  (Meänkieli)
Kiirunan kunta  (Finnish)
This is Kiruna.jpg
Coat of arms of Kiruna Municipality
Coat of arms
Kiruna Municipality in Norrbotten County.png
Country Sweden
County Norrbotten County
Seat Kiruna
Area
 • Total 20,714.66 km2 (7,997.97 sq mi)
 • Land 19,371.12 km2 (7,479.23 sq mi)
 • Water 1,343.54 km2 (518.74 sq mi)
  Area as of January 1, 2010.
Population
 (June 30, 2012)
 • Total 22,974
 • Density 1.109070/km2 (2.87248/sq mi)
Time zone UTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST) UTC+2 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code SE
Province Lapland
Municipal code 2584
Website www.kiruna.se

Kiruna Municipality (Swedish: Kiruna kommun; Northern Sami: Giron gielda; Meänkieli: Kierunan kunta; Finnish: Kiirunan kunta) is a municipality in Norrbotten County in northernmost Sweden. Its seat is located in Kiruna. It is the northernmost municipality in Sweden, and at 20,715 square kilometres (7,998 sq mi) is Sweden's geographically largest covering roughly 4.604% of its total area. Finnish, Meänkieli and Sami have the official status of being minority languages in the municipality.

History

During the 20th century, the mining settlement Kiruna was built in the parish of Jukkasjärvi, at that time a rural municipality in very remote territory. A so-called municipalsamhälle (which was a kind of borough established within a rural municipality to take care of some matters of urban character) was instituted in 1908. The settlement grew (it even had a tramway system) and it was decided to make it a city.

On 1 January 1948, the whole parish of Jukkasjärvi was transformed into the City of Kiruna. As the vast wilderness around the town itself was included, Kiruna was at that time regarded as the largest city municipality in the world. Only a few more cities were instituted in Sweden, the last one in 1951. Instead the differences between the three types of municipalities were diminished and finally abolished altogether. In 1971, Kiruna, as all others, became a unitary municipality and at the same time merged with Karesuando.

Geography

Kebnekaise is Sweden's and Sápmi's highest mountain at 2,104 metres above mean sea level. There are more than 6,000 lakes in Kiruna municipality, Lake Torneträsk being the largest. Seven rivers run through the municipality, named Kalix River, Torne River, Lainio River, Rautas River and Vittangi River, as well as Könkämä River and Muonio River which mark the border to Finland. The untouched geography has also been noted with the establishment of Abisko National Park, by the Norwegian border, established as early as 1909.

Localities

There are seven localities (or urban areas) in Kiruna Municipality:

# Locality Population
1 Kiruna 18,154
2 Vittangi 789
3 Jukkasjärvi 519
4 Svappavaara 394
5 Kuttainen 364
6 Karesuando 313
7 Övre Soppero 220

The municipal seat in bold

Demographics

This is a demographic table based on Kiruna Municipality's electoral districts in the 2022 Swedish general election sourced from SVT's election platform, in turn taken from SCB official statistics.

In total there were 22,528 residents, including 16,910 Swedish citizens of voting age resident in the municipality. 56.7% voted for the left coalition and 41.8% for the right coalition. Indicators are in percentage points except population totals and income. Kiruna has high general incomes for an isolated municipality in northern Sweden, mainly as a result of the vast mining industry.

Elections

Riksdag

These are the results of the elections to the Riksdag for Kiruna Municipality since the 1972 municipal reform. Norrbotten Party also contested the 1994 election but due to the party's small size at a nationwide level SCB did not publish the party's results at a municipal level. The same applies to the Sweden Democrats between 1988 and 1998. "Turnout" denotes the percentage of eligible voters casting any ballots, whereas "Votes" denotes the number of actual valid ballots cast.

Year Turnout Votes V S MP C L KD M SD ND NP/SP
1973 83.5 15,875 19.9 52.2 0.0 12.8 6.6 1.3 6.6 0.0 0.0 0.0
1976 85.1 17,083 15.8 56.8 0.0 12.2 7.0 1.1 6.5 0.0 0.0 0.0
1979 86.2 17,283 14.6 58.7 0.0 7.3 6.3 1.3 8.8 0.0 0.0 0.0
1982 87.9 17,626 15.5 62.7 0.9 5.4 2.6 1.3 10.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
1985 84.9 16,597 16.2 60.9 0.7 4.8 6.9 0.0 9.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
1988 79.1 15,308 16.2 60.7 2.9 3.7 6.3 1.7 7.3 0.0 0.0 0.0
1991 80.1 15,373 14.1 58.2 1.9 2.9 5.8 3.5 9.9 0.0 2.8 0.0
1994 84.5 16,299 19.2 58.6 3.6 2.0 3.6 2.0 9.2 0.0 0.3 0.0
1998 78.4 14,566 27.2 49.2 2.8 1.2 2.2 5.1 10.7 0.0 0.0 0.0
2002 77.5 13,709 14.8 40.9 5.2 1.9 4.1 3.8 4.4 0.0 0.0 23.5
2006 78.8 13,762 15.0 51.8 3.7 3.3 3.2 3.9 9.5 2.4 0.0 3.9
2010 82.3 14,535 14.0 51.7 5.2 2.6 3.2 3.2 13.2 5.7 0.0 0.0
2014 84.3 14,964 11.6 47.4 5.2 3.0 2.3 3.4 10.3 13.2 0.0 0.0
2018 85.8 14,796 13.5 38.2 2.8 5.4 2.5 4.9 10.7 19.7 0.0 0.0

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.

Year Turnout Votes Left Right SD Other Elected
1973 83.5 15,875 72.1 26.0 0.0 1.9 98.1
1976 85.1 17,083 72.6 25.7 0.0 1.9 98.1
1979 86.2 17,283 73.3 22.4 0.0 4.3 95.7
1982 87.9 17,626 78.2 18.0 0.0 3.8 96.2
1985 84.9 16,597 77.1 20.7 0.0 2.2 97.8
1988 79.1 15,308 79.8 17.3 0.0 2.9 97.1
1991 80.1 15,373 73.0 22.1 0.0 4.9 95.1
1994 84.5 16,299 81.4 16.8 0.0 1.8 98.2
1998 78.4 14,566 79.2 19.2 0.0 1.6 98.4
2002 77.5 13,709 60.9 14.2 0.0 24.9 75.1
2006 78.8 13,762 70.5 19.9 0.0 8.4 91.4
2010 82.3 14,535 70.9 22.2 5.7 1.2 98.8
2014 84.3 14,964 64.2 19.0 13.2 3.6 96.4
2018 85.8 14,796 54.5 23.5 19.7 2.3 97.7

Former sister city

Kiruna Municipality had one sister city:

  • Russia Arkhangelsk, Russia (1999–2022)

Notable native

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Municipio de Kiruna para niños

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