Tuusula

Tuusula
Municipality
Tuusulan kunta

The wooden church of Tuusula

Coat of arms

Location of Tuusula in Finland
Coordinates: 60°24′N 025°02′E / 60.400°N 25.033°E / 60.400; 25.033Coordinates: 60°24′N 025°02′E / 60.400°N 25.033°E / 60.400; 25.033
Country Finland
Region Uusimaa
Sub-region Helsinki sub-region
Founded 1643
Seat Hyrylä
Villages Jokela, Kellokoski
Government
  Municipal manager Hannu Joensivu
Area (2011-01-01)[1]
  Total 225.46 km2 (87.05 sq mi)
  Land 219.51 km2 (84.75 sq mi)
  Water 5.95 km2 (2.30 sq mi)
Area rank 293rd largest in Finland
Elevation 63 m (207 ft)
Population (2015-06-30)[2]
  Total 38,462
  Rank 29th largest in Finland
  Density 175.22/km2 (453.8/sq mi)
Population by native language[3]
  Finnish 96.4% (official)
  Swedish 1.7%
  Others 1.8%
Population by age[4]
  0 to 14 22.2%
  15 to 64 67.1%
  65 or older 10.7%
Time zone EET (UTC+2)
  Summer (DST) EEST (UTC+3)
Postal code 04301
Municipal tax rate[5] 18.25%
Urbanisation 93.4%
Unemployment rate 5.6%
Climate Dfb
Website www.tuusula.fi

Tuusula (Finnish pronunciation: [tuːsulɑ]; Swedish: Tusby, [ˈtʉːsbyː]) is a municipality of Finland. It belongs to the Helsinki sub-region of the Uusimaa region. The municipality has a population of 38,462 (30 June 2015).[2]

Geography

Tuusula, lying on the shores of Tuusulanjärvi lake, is located in the province of Southern Finland and is part of the Uusimaa region. It covers an area of 225.46 square kilometres (87.05 sq mi) of which 5.95 km2 (2.30 sq mi) is water.[1] The population density is 175.22 inhabitants per square kilometre (453.8/sq mi).

Tuusula has three population centres. The administrative centre is Hyrylä (about 19,500 residents), other two are Jokela (5,300 residents) and Kellokoski (4,300 residents). The remaining 4,400 residents are distributed to the rural areas outside of municipal centres.[6]

The neighbouring communes are Vantaa to the south, Nurmijärvi to the west, Hyvinkää to the north, Mäntsälä and Järvenpää to the north east, and Sipoo and Kerava to the east.

History

The area in what is now Tuusula was located in the larger municipality of Sipoo. In 1643, it became a separate parish in the municipality, and in 1653, it became a separate municipality. Tuusula's boundaries have not always remained the same: in 1924 the municipality of Kerava split from here; in 1950 the municipality of Korso was split between Tuusula, Kerava, and Sipoo; and in 1951 the municipality of Järvenpää split from here.

During the Crimean War (1853–1856), a Russian garrison was stationed in what is now Hyrylä. The modern parish mostly developed around it.

The area had always been a fairly fertile area, thus encouraging farming. The development of other industries began in 1795, when an ironworks was created in Kellokoski that functioned until the 1980s. The establishment of a railway in Jokela furthered the growth.

Soon after this industrial time another aspect of Tuusulan history was realised. The Tuusulanjärvi lake attracted many artists who wanted to paint the beautiful landscape. Following the footsteps of Aleksis Kivi, the Finnish national poet who spent the last years of his life in a hut on the shores of the lake, Jean Sibelius, Juhani Aho, and Pekka Halonen even established their main residences here. Recently these houses have become tourist sites, especially Sibelius' house Ainola. Also, Tuusula Lake Road on the eastern shore of the lake is an outside museum.

The Jokela rail crash was a rail crash which occurred on 21 April 1996 here.

Jokela High School was the site of the Jokela school shooting, a school shooting which occurred on 7 November 2007, leaving 9 dead (including the 18-year-old perpetrator, Pekka-Eric Auvinen).[7][8]

Demographics

Tuusula, in the Helsinki suburbs, has been in a positive balance of population, with it more than doubling in size since 1970.

The municipality is officially Finnish. Swedish was the second official language until 1943. Today only 2% are Swedish-speaking.

Population in:

Politics

Parliamentary elections

Results of the Finnish parliamentary election, 2011 in Tuusula:

Municipal Council

Composition of the Municipal Council (2005–2008) [9]
Party Percent of the council Seats
National Coalition Party 26.2% 14
Tuusulan Puolesta (Eng. "For Tuusula") 25.2% 14
Social Democratic Party of Finland 25.1% 13
Centre Party 11.6% 5
Christian Democrats 3.2% 2
Left Alliance 3.5% 1
Green League 3.5% 1
Swedish People's Party 1.1% 1

Twin towns – Sister cities

Tuusula is twinned with:

Economy and Infrastructure

Economy

Due its proximity to the Helsinki, Tuusula is, for the most part, a commuter town. Tuusula itself has around 10,000 jobs. 66% of the jobs are in the service sector, 31% in the workforce, and 1.5% are farmers. The unemployment rate amounted to 3% (2007), far below the national average.

Transportation

From the centre of Tuusula, Hyrylä, there are good bus connections to Helsinki, via the Tuusula motorway. There are also two train stations in the main railway line of Finland, Jokela and Nuppulinna.

Education

Tuusula's network of schools include:

References

  1. 1 2 "Area by municipality as of 1 January 2011" (PDF) (in Finnish and Swedish). Land Survey of Finland. Retrieved 9 March 2011.
  2. 1 2 "VÄESTÖTIETOJÄRJESTELMÄ REKISTERITILANNE 30.06.2015" (in Finnish and Swedish). Population Register Center of Finland. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  3. "Population according to language and the number of foreigners and land area km2 by area as of 31 December 2008". Statistics Finland's PX-Web databases. Statistics Finland. Retrieved 29 March 2009.
  4. "Population according to age and gender by area as of 31 December 2008". Statistics Finland's PX-Web databases. Statistics Finland. Retrieved 28 April 2009.
  5. "List of municipal and parish tax rates in 2011". Tax Administration of Finland. 29 November 2010. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
  6. Tuusulassa on kolme keskusta ja niitä ympäröivät maaseutualueet (Finnish)
  7. "Teen gunman dead from critical injuries who opened fire on Finnish classmates". CNN. 2007-11-07. Archived from the original on 2007-11-09. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
  8. "Fatal shooting at Finnish school". BBC News. 2007-11-07. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
  9. 2004 election results

External links

Media related to Tuusula at Wikimedia Commons

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, December 09, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.