Valkeakoski (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈʋɑlkeɑˌkoski]; lit. "white rapids") is a town and municipality in Finland. It is located 35 kilometres (22 mi) south of Tampere, 45 km (28 mi) north of Hämeenlinna and 150 km (93 mi) north of Helsinki in the Pirkanmaa region. The municipality has a population of 20,701 (31 December 2023)^[2] and covers an area of 372.03 square kilometres (143.64 sq mi) of which 100.06 km² (38.63 sq mi) is water.^[1] The population density is 76.09 inhabitants per square kilometre (197.1/sq mi).

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Finnish. (June 2023) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Finnish Wikipedia article at [[:fi:Valkeakoski]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|fi|Valkeakoski}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Quick Facts Country, Region ...

Valkeakoski
Town
Valkeakosken kaupunki Valkeakoski stad
Aerial view of Valkeakoski
Coat of arms
Location of Valkeakoski in Finland
Coordinates: 61°16′N 024°02′E
Country	Finland
Region	Pirkanmaa
Sub-region	Southern Pirkanmaa
Charter	1923
Government
• Town manager	Jukka Varonen
Area  (2018-01-01)[1]
• Total	372.03 km2 (143.64 sq mi)
• Land	272.05 km2 (105.04 sq mi)
• Water	100.06 km2 (38.63 sq mi)
• Rank	240th largest in Finland
Population  (2023-12-31)[2]
• Total	20,701
• Rank	51st largest in Finland
• Density	76.09/km2 (197.1/sq mi)
Population by native language [3]
• Finnish	95.7% (official)
• Swedish	0.2%
• Others	4.1%
Population by age [4]
• 0 to 14	15.5%
• 15 to 64	56.8%
• 65 or older	27.7%
Time zone	UTC+02:00 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+03:00 (EEST)
Website	www.valkeakoski.fi/en/

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The municipality is unilingually Finnish.

Valkeakoski is best known for its paper industry and domestically highly successful football team, FC Haka.

The town and the paper industry have both grown by the Valkeakoski rapids between the lake Mallasvesi in the north and the lake Vanajavesi in the south.

The Valkeakoski area is known to have been inhabited since the Iron Age. More than a thousand years ago, the ridges on the area served as a foundation of the Rapola fort. In the following Middle Ages, the mill town Sääksmäki was the center of the area. However, industrialization towards the end of the 19th century increased the importance of what became the contemporary town of Valkeakoski. The channel of Valkeakoski was opened in 1869, and the first paper mill was completed in 1873, marking the beginning of a continuing tradition of the forest industry. The municipality of Sääksmäki, from which the town of Valkeakoski was detached in 1923 was consolidated with Valkeakoski in 1973.^[5]

Valkeakoski is notable for the football team FC Haka and also other Haka sections, especially the cross-country skiing section. The "skiing Haka" is one of the most successful skiing teams in Finland. The other major local sports organization Koskenpojat has also been really successful, winning many national championships in aerobic gymnastics.

• Veikko Hakulinen
• Mika Kallio
• Kari-Pekka Laaksonen
• Pentti Linkola
• Iris Sihvonen
• Emil Wikström
• Juhani Peltonen
• Alpo Suhonen
• Antti Muurinen

• National Football Museum
• Työväen Musiikkitapahtuma music festival (freely translated as Workers' Music Event)
• Tehtaan kenttä