Övertorneå Municipality

Övertorneå Municipality Övertorneå kommun
Municipality
Coat of arms
Country	Sweden
County	Norrbotten County
Seat	Övertorneå
Area[1]
• Total	2,492.29 km^2 (962.28 sq mi)
• Land	2,362.07 km^2 (912.00 sq mi)
• Water	130.22 km^2 (50.28 sq mi)
	Area as of January 1, 2014.
Population (March 31, 2015)[2]
• Total	4,684
• Density	1.9/km^2 (4.9/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code	SE
Province	Norrbotten
Municipal code	2518
Website	www.overtornea.se

Övertorneå Municipality (Swedish: Övertorneå kommun, Meänkieli: Matarengi, Finnish: Ylitornion kunta; sometimes also referred to as Matarengin kunta by northern Finnish press to avoid confusion with the similarly named Finnish municipality Ylitornio) is a municipality in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden, bordering Finland. Its seat is located in Övertorneå.

Until the Finnish War (1808–1809) Övertorneå and the Finnish Ylitornio were a single municipality. Following the war, the eastern part of the municipality was ceded to Russia as a part of Finland. In 1870 a minor part of Övertorneå Municipality was split off, forming the rural municipality Korpilombolo (now part of Pajala Municipality). In 1969 Övertorneå and Hietaniemi municipalities were merged, forming the present municipality.

Many places in the municipality have both a Swedish and a Finnish name, in the local dialect of Finnish known as Meänkieli, one of the minority languages of Sweden.

Localities

There are four localities (or urban areas) in Övertorneå Municipality:^[3]

#	Locality	Population
1	Övertorneå	1,965
2	Juoksengi	401
3	Hedenäset	285
4	Svanstein	207

The municipal seat in bold

Smaller localities

There are nine smaller localities in Övertorneå Municipality:^[4]

#	Smaller locality	Population
1	Pello	193
2	Kuivakangas	125
3	Aapua	122
4	Poikijärvi	107
5	Rantajärvi	102
6	Neistenkangas	93
7	Pudas	85
8	Haapakylä	59
9	Jänkisjärvi	52

Sights

Two old wooden churches in Övertorneå and Hedenäset. The church in Övertorneå has an organ from the 17th century.

Juoksengi is intersected by the Arctic Circle and is known as the "Arctic Circle Village" (Polcirkelbyn).

References

1. "Statistiska centralbyrån, Kommunarealer den 1 januari 2014" (Microsoft Excel) (in Swedish). Statistics Sweden. Retrieved 2014-04-18.
2. "Folkmängd i riket, län och kommuner 31 mars 2015" (in Swedish). Statistics Sweden. May 11, 2015. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
3. Statistics Sweden as of December 31, 2005
4. Statistics Sweden as of December 31, 2005 (Swedish)

External links

• Övertorneå Municipality – Official site
• Ylitornio-Övertorneå – Tourist site

Coordinates: 66°23′N 23°40′E / 66.383°N 23.667°E