Nurmijärvi

Nurmijärvi (ˈnurmiˌjærʋi) is the most populated rural municipality of Finland, located north of the capital Helsinki. The neighboring municipalities of Nurmijärvi are Espoo, Vantaa, Tuusula, Hyvinkää and Vihti, and it is part of the Greater Helsinki. The population of the municipality is inhabitants. In recent decades, it has been one of the fastest growing municipalities in the Greater Helsinki and also in whole Finland in terms of population. The close proximity to Helsinki has led to a considerable growth of the major villages such as Klaukkala, Rajamäki and Röykkä. Klaukkala is the biggest built-up area of Nurmijärvi, which nowadays is considered a dormitory town of Helsinki. The Nurmijärvi church village (Kirkonkylä) is the administrative centre of the municipality, although the clear emphasis on population growth is in Klaukkala. Nurmijärvi literally means "lawn lake" although the lake that gave the municipality its name was drained in the early 20th century and is now nothing more than some flat fields near the village centre. Nurmijärvi is one of three municipalities in the Uusimaa region that do not have a Swedish name; the others are Askola and Mäntsälä. Matti Vanhanen, former Prime Minister of Finland, lives in the Lepsämä village in Nurmijärvi. The area of what is now Nurmijärvi was inhabited in prehistoric times, which refers to archaeological finds dating back to 4500–3500 BC. At the time of the Middle Ages there was no permanent settlement in the area, but later the settlement spread from both Tavastia and the coast to 15 villages in 1540 with 115 houses. Administratively, Lake Nurmijärvi has been formed by combining the districts of Loppi, Vihti and Helsinki parish. The earliest documentary mention of Nurmijärvi dates back to 1488, when the village of Uotila was mentioned. According to the land register of 1539, Nurmijärvi had 15 villages with a total of 113 houses. An independent congregation had already been formed in 1605 and the administrator of Nurmijärvi was born in 1775, when the area had a population of 1471.