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Concept
Haparanda
Summary
Haparanda (hapaˈrǎnːda; ) is a locality and the seat of Haparanda Municipality in Norrbotten County, Sweden. It is adjacent to Tornio, Finland. Haparanda had a population of 4,856 in 2010, out of a municipal total of 10,200 inhabitants.
Haparanda is located at the northerly extreme of the Swedish coastline, far removed from large cities. Its summers are very mild for a coastal location so far north, and winters are normally not extremely cold in spite of the relative proximity to the Arctic Circle.
Haparanda has strong connections to Tornio and the Finnish side of the river and bilingualism of Swedish and Finnish is common although Swedish is the sole official language and the mother tongue of a vast majority of inhabitants. In 2010, it was estimated that 70% of Haparanda's inhabitants spoke Finnish as a second language.
Haparanda, for historical reasons, is often still referred to as a "city" despite its small population, although Statistics Sweden only counts localities with more than 10,000 inhabitants as cities. The municipality itself, on the other hand, uses the term Haparanda stad (City of Haparanda) not only for the town itself, but for its whole territory (). At 24° 8' E, Haparanda is Sweden's easternmost settlement.
History of Tornio
When Sweden ceded Finland to Russia in 1809, the Finnish–Swedish border was drawn along the Rivers Tornio and Muonio. The town of Tornio, located on the island Suensaari in the river delta, became part of the Grand Duchy of Finland within the Russian Empire as demanded by czar Alexander I. (Finland declared independence in 1917.)
At that time the town of Tornio was dominated by Swedish-speaking merchants and craftsmen, forming a linguistic island in a Finnish-speaking countryside. After the war many of the Swedes started to develop the small village of Haaparanta across the border instead (Haparanda and Tornio are within walking distance), eventually leaving Tornio unilingually Finnish. Haparanda was made a market town (köping) in 1821 and received its city charter in 1842.
Official source
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Related concepts (2)
Tornio
Tornio (ˈtornio; Torneå; Duortnus ˈtuo̯rtnuːs; Tuárnus) is a city and municipality in Lapland, Finland. The city forms a cross-border twin city together with Haparanda on the Swedish side. The municipality covers an area of , of which is water. The population density is , with a total population of (). Tornio is unilingually Finnish with a negligible number of native Swedish speakers, although this does not count vast numbers of bilinguals who speak Swedish as a second language, with an official target of universal working bilingualism for both border municipalities.
Torne (river)
The Torne, also known as the Tornio (Tornionjoki, Torne älv, Torneälven, Duortneseatnu, Väylä), is a river in northern Sweden and Finland. For approximately half of its length, it defines the border between these two countries. In the upper parts, the river is situated in Sweden before it meets the Muonio River where it adjoins the international border. It rises at the lake Torneträsk near the border with Norway and flows generally southeast for a distance of into the Gulf of Bothnia.