Kitee

Kitee (Finnish: [ˈkiteː]; Swedish: Kides) is a town and a municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Eastern Finland and is part of the North Karelia region, about 65 kilometres (40 mi) south of Joensuu and about 175 kilometres (109 mi) northeast of Lappeenranta. The municipality has a population of 9,533 (31 March 2025)^[2] and covers an area of 1,724.41 square kilometres (665.80 sq mi) of which 275.61 km² (106.41 sq mi) is water.^[1] The population density is 7.6 inhabitants per square kilometre (20/sq mi).

Kitee Kides
Town
Kiteen kaupunki Kides stad
Kitee Church
Coat of arms
Location of Kitee in Finland
Coordinates: 62°06′N 030°08′E
Country	Finland
Region	North Karelia
Sub-region	Central Karelia
Charter	1631
City rights	1992
Government
• Town manager	Kirsi Hämäläinen
Area  (2018-01-01)[1]
• Total	1,724.41 km2 (665.80 sq mi)
• Land	1,253.82 km2 (484.10 sq mi)
• Water	275.61 km2 (106.41 sq mi)
• Rank	57th largest in Finland
Population  (2025-03-31)[2]
• Total	9,533
• Rank	102nd largest in Finland
• Density	7.6/km2 (20/sq mi)
Population by native language [2]
• Finnish	91.5% (official)
• Others	8.5%
Population by age [3]
• 0 to 14	11.2%
• 15 to 64	51.8%
• 65 or older	37%
Time zone	UTC+02:00 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+03:00 (EEST)
Website	www.kitee.fi/en/web/eng

The municipality is unilingually Finnish. Neighbouring municipalities are Parikkala, Rääkkylä, Savonlinna and Tohmajärvi.

History

Kitee is known as the ''moonshine city of Finland'' due to its legal and illegal moonshine manufacturing.

Villages

• Haapasalo
• Haarajärvi
• Hammaskallio
• Heinoniemi
• Jaakkima
• Juurikka
• Kantosyrjä
• Kiteenkylä
• Kiteenlahti
• Kontiola
• Kunonniemi
• Lahdenkylä
• Leinovaara
• Loukunvaara
• Misola
• Muljula
• Niinikumpu
• Nivunki
• Närsäkkälä
• Ojamäki
• Piimäjärvi
• Potoskavaara
• Puhos
• Puhossalo
• Päätye
• Riihijärvi
• Rokkala
• Ruppovaara
• Satulavaara
• Suoparsaari
• Suorlahti
• Särkijärvi
• Säynejärvi
• Taipale
• Tasapää
• Tolosenmäki
• Varmoniemi
• Välivaara

Sports

The men's pesäpallo club Kiteen Pallo -90 competes in the Superpesis national league, playing at Shore Field.

Notable people

• Heavy metal band Nightwish hails from the town of Kitee:
  • Tarja Turunen, singer
  • Emppu Vuorinen, guitarist
  • Tuomas Holopainen, keyboardist
  • Sami Vänskä, bassist
  • Jukka Nevalainen, drummer
  • Only Holopainen and Vuorinen remain in the band to this day.
• Antti Aalto, ski-jumper
• Nils Ludvig Arppe, industrialist
• Tomek Valtonen, ice hockey coach and player

See also

• Finland portal

• Kitee Airfield
• Kitee Zoo
• Lake Kitee