Hitachinaka is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 154,663 in 64,900 households and a population density of 1547 persons per km2. The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 26.1%. The total area of the city is . It is a "hiragana city", the place name is written with the hiragana syllabary and not the traditional kanji.
Hitachinaka is located slightly northeast of central Ibaraki Prefecture and east of the capital of Mito. It consists of a lowland area around the Naka River in the south and the Pacific coast in the east.
Ibaraki Prefecture
Tōkai
Naka
Mito
Ōarai
Hitachinaka has a Humid continental climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by warm summers and cold winters with light snowfall. The average annual temperature in Hitachinaka is 13.8 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1415 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 25.2 °C, and lowest in January, at around 3.4 °C.
Per Japanese census data, the population of Hitachinaka has recently plateaued after a long period of growth.
The towns of Hiraiso and Minato, as well as the village of Katsuta, were created within Naka District with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. Minato was renamed Nakaminato in 1938. Nakaminato had the commercial fishing industry as its main industry, but the area rapidly developed into a company town of Hitachi, Katsuta was elevated to town status in 1940. During World War II, the area was subject to air raids and shelling by Allied warships due to its numerous factories producing war-related materials. On March 31, 1954, the towns of Nakaminato and Hiraiso merged, forming the city of Nakaminato. Katsuta was raised to city status on November 1 of the same year. The two cities merged on November 1, 1994, to form the city of Hitachinaka.
Hitachinaka has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city council of 25 members.
