Nykarleby

Nykarleby

Nykarleby

Town in Ostrobothnia, Finland

Nykarleby (Finland Swedish: [nyˈkɑːrleˌbyː]; Finnish: Uusikaarlepyy, Finnish: [ˈuːsiˌkɑːrleˌpyː]) is a town in Finland, located on the west coast of the country. Kronoby is situated in Ostrobothnia, along the Gulf of Bothnia. The population of Nykarleby is approximately 8,000, while the sub-region has a population of approximately 50,000. It is the 127th most populous municipality in Finland.

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Illustration in Finland framstäldt i teckningar edited by Zacharias Topelius and published 1845-1852.

Nykarleby is a bilingual municipality with Finnish and Swedish as its official languages. The population consists of 6% Finnish speakers, 85% Swedish speakers, and 9% speakers of other languages.

The largest employers in the town are Prevex (member of KWH Group), a packaging and piping products manufacturer, Westwood, which manufactures wooden staircases, and in the village of Jeppo, KWH Mirka, a coated abrasives manufacturer.[5] A Swedish-speaking art school (Svenska Konstskolan) is located in Nykarleby town.

History

The town is located at the mouth of the Lapua River [fi; sv]. The name of the place was Lapuan Joensuu or 'mouth of Lapua river'. The municipality was founded in 1607 by merging parts of Pedersöre and Vörå into a new parish. In 1620, the small village of Lepua was chartered as a city, with the Swedish name Nykarleby, which means 'New Karleby'; the Finnish name is a Finnicized version of the same. The town was chartered in the same year as the nearby city of Kokkola, or in Swedish, Gamlakarleby (later, Karleby).

The battles of Nykarleby and Jutas were fought there between Swedish and Russian troops during the Finnish War in 1808.

Zacharias Topelius, an important author in Finland, was born in Nykarleby.

In 1995, the small, idyllic town was ranked as "the happiest city in Finland" in a controversial article in Helsingin Sanomat, the leading newspaper of Finland.[6] Nykarleby has the highest concentration of Ukrainian speakers in Finland.[citation needed]

Population by mother tongue in 2021[7]

  Swedish (85.3%)
  Finnish (6.7%)
  Ukrainian (2.1%)
  Vietnamese (1.2%)
  Other (4.7%)

Politics

Results of the 2011 Finnish parliamentary election in Nykarleby:

Notable people

List of notable people that were born in, or have lived in, Nykarleby.

International relations

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Finland

Twin towns – sister cities

Nykarleby is twinned with:

See also

References

  1. [1]
    "Area of Finnish Municipalities 1.1.2018" (PDF). National Land Survey of Finland. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
  2. [2]
    "Immigration record high in Finland in 2023". StatFin. Statistics Finland. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
  3. [3]
    "Demographic Structure by area as of 31 December 2022". Statistics Finland's PX-Web databases. Statistics Finland. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
  4. [4]
    "Population according to age (1-year) and sex by area and the regional division of each statistical reference year, 2003–2020". StatFin. Statistics Finland. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
  5. [5]
    "Nykarleby :: Historiikki". Archived from the original on 7 September 2007. Retrieved 24 February 2008.
  6. [6]
    Helsingin Sanomat Kuukausiliite, January 1995. Archived 9 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Externally referred to in: Asiakastieto. Luottolista 2000. [permanent dead link]
  7. [7]
    "Väestö 31.12. Muuttujina Alue, Kieli, Sukupuoli, Vuosi ja Tiedot".
  8. [8]
    Gosse, Edmund William (1911). "Topelius, Zakris" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). p. 49.

Media related to Nykarleby at Wikimedia Commons
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