Överkalix Municipality

Överkalix Municipality
Överkalix kommun
Municipality

Coat of arms
Country Sweden
County Norrbotten County
Seat Överkalix
Area[1]
  Total 2,919.47 km2 (1,127.21 sq mi)
  Land 2,764.53 km2 (1,067.39 sq mi)
  Water 154.94 km2 (59.82 sq mi)
  Area as of January 1, 2014.
Population (March 31, 2015)[2]
  Total 3,417
  Density 1.2/km2 (3.0/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
  Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code SE
Province Norrbotten
Municipal code 2513
Website www.overkalix.se

Överkalix Municipality (Swedish: Överkalix kommun, Finnish: Ylikainuun kunta) is a municipality in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden. Its seat is located in Överkalix.

In 1870 a part of old Överkalix Municipality was detached from it, forming a municipality called Korpilombolo (now in Pajala Municipality). The municipality was not affected by the two subdivision reforms of the 20th century.

The coat of arms was designed in 1944 and based on the arms of the parish. Its exact meaning is not known, but many northern arms feature bears, reindeer or other animals.

Geography

Överkalix Municipality is situated along the south-going Kalix River. The unmodified scenic nature along the river attracts tourists and fishers every year. Within the municipality one also finds two of the river's most powerful waterfalls, Jockfall (9 metres fall) and Linafall (16 metres fall).

Continuing north along the Kalix River one finds the iron ore mines. Travelling south towards the coast one finds larger towns, with Luleå being the closest, located some 100 kilometres south. Transportation is reliable thanks to the E10 highway.

The area otherwise contains much coniferous forests.

Language

Due to its proximity to Finland, Finnish is an official minority language in the municipality and most names have a Finn counterpart.

The local Swedish dialect is known as Överkalixmål, the Överkalix language.[3]

Localities

There are four localities (or urban areas) in Överkalix Municipality:[4]

# Locality Population
1 Överkalix 946
2 Tallvik 444
3 Svartbyn 281
4 Vännäsberget 207

The municipal seat in bold

Industry

The municipality itself is the largest employer with around 430 employees. Thereafter follows Isolamin AB, a company making wall, ceiling and floor elements, with 110 employees. Other sectors:

Traditionally the industry was dominated by forest industries, but this has decreased since the 1960s. It is estimated that the service sector will continue to expand and be the dominating sector some day. Many of those companies are in the field of computers and telecommunication.

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. Ullahansson.com (Swedish)
  4. Statistics Sweden as of December 31, 2005

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Överkalix Municipality.

Coordinates: 66°21′N 22°53′E / 66.350°N 22.883°E / 66.350; 22.883

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, February 08, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.