Kiruna Municipality

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.

Kiruna Municipality Kiruna kommun (Swedish) Girona gielda (Northern Sami) Kierunan kunta (Meänkieli) Kiirunan kunta (Finnish)
Municipality
Coat of arms
Coordinates: 67°51′N 020°13′E
Country	Sweden
County	Norrbotten County
Seat	Kiruna
Area [1]
• Total	20,551.42 km2 (7,934.95 sq mi)
• Land	19,140.33 km2 (7,390.12 sq mi)
• Water	1,411.09 km2 (544.82 sq mi)
	Area as of 1 January 2014.
Population  (31 December 2023)[2]
• Total	22,433
• Density	1.1/km2 (2.8/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

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:^[3]

#	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.^[4]

In total there were 22,528 residents, including 16,910 Swedish citizens of voting age resident in the municipality.^[4] 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.

Location	Residents	Citizen adults	Left vote	Right vote	Employed	Swedish parents	Foreign heritage	Income SEK	Degree
			%	%
Bolaget-Triangeln	1,642	1,315	60.5	38.5	86	86	14	29,391	30
Högalid-Sandstensberget	2,263	1,768	56.3	42.3	86	84	16	30,820	36
Jukkasjärvi	1,531	1,065	44.6	53.2	86	89	11	32,124	29
Kiruna C	1,439	803	61.9	35.9	84	71	29	27,337	36
Kiruna NO	1,132	891	55.9	39.9	85	86	14	21,361	23
Kiruna SO	1,456	1,138	62.1	37.3	85	82	18	25,809	22
Lombolo M	1,622	1,111	58.9	40.7	90	91	9	33,208	32
Lombolo V	1,587	1,142	53.2	44.4	82	79	21	24,516	21
Lombolo Ö	2,481	1,712	55.3	43.5	88	87	13	30,451	31
Luossavaara-Abisko	1,741	1,397	64.9	34.1	87	85	15	30,269	40
Tuolluvaara-Kurravaara	2,302	1,653	53.4	45.3	86	88	12	33,387	32
Östermalm	1,261	1,118	56.4	42.1	80	84	16	27,730	34
Övre Norrmalm	2,071	1,797	58.3	40.2	86	83	17	30,998	35
Source: SVT[4]

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[5]	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[6]	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[7]	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[8]	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[9]	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[10]	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[11]	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[12]	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[13]	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[14]	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[15]	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[16]	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[17]	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[18]	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:

• Arkhangelsk, Russia (1999–2022)^[19]

Notable native

• Börje Salming, Swedish ice hockey player

References

1. "Statistiska centralbyrån, Kommunarealer den 1 januari 2014" (in Swedish). Statistics Sweden. 2014-01-01. Archived from the original (Microsoft Excel) on 2016-09-27. Retrieved 2014-04-18.
2. "Folkmängd och befolkningsförändringar - Kvartal 4, 2023" (in Swedish). Statistics Sweden. February 22, 2024. Retrieved February 22, 2024.
3. Statistics Sweden as of December 31, 2005
4. "Valresultat 2022 för Kiruna i riksdagsvalet" (in Swedish). SVT. 11 September 2022. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
5. "Riksdagsvalet 1973 (page 168)" (PDF) (in Swedish). SCB. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
6. "Riksdagsvalet 1976 (page 163)" (PDF) (in Swedish). SCB. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
7. "Riksdagsvalet 1979 (page 187)" (PDF) (in Swedish). SCB. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
8. "Riksdagsvalet 1982 (page 189)" (PDF) (in Swedish). SCB. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
9. "Riksdagsvalet 1985 (page 189)" (PDF) (in Swedish). SCB. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
10. "Riksdagsvalet 1988 (page 169)" (PDF) (in Swedish). SCB. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
11. "Riksdagsvalet 1991 (page 32)" (PDF) (in Swedish). SCB. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
12. "Riksdagsvalet 1994 (page 46)" (PDF) (in Swedish). SCB. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
13. "Riksdagsvalet 1998 (page 43)" (PDF) (in Swedish). SCB. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
14. "Valresultat Riksdag Kiruna kommun 2002" (in Swedish). Valmyndigheten. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
15. "Valresultat Riksdag Kiruna kommun 2006" (in Swedish). Valmyndigheten. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
16. "Valresultat Riksdag Kiruna kommun 2010" (in Swedish). Valmyndigheten. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
17. "Valresultat Riksdag Kiruna kommun 2014" (in Swedish). Valmyndigheten. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
18. "Valresultat Riksdag Kiruna kommun 2018" (in Swedish). Valmyndigheten. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
19. "Kiruna säger upp vänortsavtal med Arkhangelsk". kiruna.se (in Swedish). 2022-04-04. Retrieved 2023-08-25.

External links

• Kiruna Municipality Archived 2018-07-14 at the Wayback Machine – Official site