Ii,_Finland

Ii, Finland

Ii, Finland

Municipality in Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland


Ii (Finnish pronunciation: []; Swedish: Ijo) is a municipality of Finland. It is situated by the Bothnian Bay, at the mouth of river Iijoki, and it is part of the Northern Ostrobothnia region. The municipality has a population of 9,768 (31 December 2023)[2] and covers an area of 2,872.44 km2 (1,109.06 sq mi) of which 1,256.69 km2 (485.21 sq mi) is water.[1] The population density is 6.05/km2 (15.7/sq mi).

Quick Facts Ijo, Country ...

The municipality is unilingually Finnish.

Ii merged with Kuivaniemi on 1 January 2007. The new municipality retained the name Ii, but adopted the coat of arms of Kuivaniemi. Ii is notable for having the shortest place name in Finland, and also one of the shortest ones in the world. The etymology is not definitively established; options are either Germanic origin or Sami origin. In the latter, it would mean "a place to stay overnight in"; cf. Northern Sami idja "night".[5]

Beginning in 2008, Ii is home to the ART Ii Biennale of Northern Environmental and Sculpture Art, an international art fair.

The city has ambition to become the first zero waste town in the world, and its municipal manager claims that it does not use fossil fuels for energy.[6]

History

Ii is named after the river Iijoki. The original name of the settlement was Iijoen kylä, first mentioned in 1374 as Yioki when it was a chapel community within the Pedersöre parish. The marketplace Iin Hamina has existed since the 14th century. Ii became a separate parish sometime before 1445.

The parish of Ii was originally larger than the modern municipality: it included Pudasjärvi and Taivalkoski until 1639, Kiiminki, Ylikiiminki and Haukipudas until 1858. The municipality of Kuivaniemi was split off in 1919 and Yli-Ii was split off in 1924.[7]

Kuivaniemi became a part of Ii again in 2007. When Yli-Ii was merged into Oulu, a part of it was given to Ii as an exclave. This exclave contains the Pahkakoski hydroelectric power plant.

The Jakkukylä area, transferred from Oulu to Ii in 2018.

The village of Jakkukylä and its surroundings, originally part of Yli-Ii and a part of Oulu from 2013, decided to join Ii in 2018.[8]

Notable people


References

  1. "Area of Finnish Municipalities 1.1.2018" (PDF). National Land Survey of Finland. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
  2. "Demographic Structure by area as of 31 December 2022". Statistics Finland's PX-Web databases. Statistics Finland. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
  3. Hyyryläinen, Toivo: Kahden kirjaimen pitäjä, Iin perinnekirja. Saarijärven Offset, 2006.
  4. "New generation of climate heroes". BBC News. Retrieved 22 June 2019.
  5. "SuomalainenPaikannimikirja_e-kirja_kuvallinen.pdf" (PDF). kaino.kotus.fi (in Finnish). p. 96. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
  6. "Tietoa meistä :: Jakkukylä". jakkukyla.fi (in Finnish). Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  • Ii travel guide from Wikivoyage
  • Media related to Ii at Wikimedia Commons
  • Municipality of Ii – Official website



Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Ii,_Finland, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.