Örnsköldsvik Municipality

Municipality in Västernorrland County, Sweden

Örnsköldsvik Municipality Örnsköldsviks kommun
Municipality
Örnsköldsvik former city hall, now a school.
Coat of arms

Coordinates: 63°17′N 18°44′E / 63.283°N 18.733°E / 63.283; 18.733
Country	Sweden
County	Västernorrland County
Seat	Örnsköldsvik
Area ^[1]
• Total	8,428.78 km² (3,254.37 sq mi)
• Land	6,376.46 km² (2,461.96 sq mi)
• Water	2,052.32 km² (792.41 sq mi)
	Area as of 1 January 2014.
Population (31 December 2023)^[2]
• Total	55,478
• Density	8.8/km² (23/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	SE
Province	Ångermanland
Municipal code	2284
Density is calculated using land area only.

Örnsköldsvik Municipality (Swedish: Örnsköldsviks kommun, Southern Sami: Orrestaaren tjïelte) is one of Sweden's 290 municipalities, in Västernorrland County in northern Sweden. Its seat is in the town Örnsköldsvik. The present municipality was created in 1971 by the amalgamation of the City of Örnsköldsvik with seven former rural municipalities.

Geography

Örnsköldsvik is situated near the northern end of the "High Coast", which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has the third longest suspension bridge in Europe, the Höga Kusten Bridge. The city is located around 100 km south of Umeå and 550 km north of Stockholm. The area is dominated by forest, but it also contains minor areas of agriculture.

Localities

The municipality of Örnsköldsvik consists of a number of parishes, within which are towns and villages. The population is distributed as follows:

Parish (town) number of citizens (31 December 2005):

Örnsköldsvik: 9,123
Arnäs: 7,653
Anundsjö: 4,100
- Bredbyn: 1,216
- Mellansel: 821
Skorped: 667
Sidensjö: 1,192
Nätra: 5,402
- Bjästa: 1,777
- Köpmanholmen: 1,263
Själevad: 18,960
- Domsjö
- Gullänget
- Sund
- Gene
Mo: 1,309
Grundsunda: 3,214
Gideå: 1,215
Björna: 1,586
Trehörningsjö: 522
Gottne: 250

Total: 54,943

Demographics

This is a demographic table based on Örnsköldsvik Municipality's electoral districts in the 2022 Swedish general election sourced from SVT's election platform, in turn taken from SCB official statistics.^[3]

In total there were 55,778 residents, including 43,029 Swedish citizens of voting age.^[3] 58.5% voted for the left coalition and 40.3% for the right coalition. Indicators are in percentage points except population totals and income.

Location

Residents

Citizen
adults

Left vote

Right vote

Employed

Swedish
parents

Foreign
heritage

Income
SEK

Degree

Arnäsvall

1,258

962

54.0

45.8

27,692

Billsta

706

542

52.8

45.9

27,645

Bjästa

1,820

1,444

61.4

37.6

21,783

Björna N

1,115

868

52.5

44.7

21,955

Björna S

679

545

61.4

37.7

26,574

Bonäset

1,944

1,449

56.0

43.5

31,980

Bredbyn-Sörflärke

1,890

1,535

60.1

38.6

23,055

Centrum

1,999

1,876

53.2

45.6

25,093

Domsjö S

1,216

902

61.9

37.2

27,360

Domsjö V

1,786

1,352

56.7

42.6

29,578

Gene

1,694

1,154

56.5

41.6

22,749

Gideå

1,084

855

56.0

43.1

24,361

Gimåt-Högland

1,445

1,055

57.5

42.0

30,119

Grundsunda N

1,273

1,011

53.2

45.3

26,144

Grundsunda S

640

559

51.9

47.3

28,704

Gullänget

1,929

1,351

58.5

40.6

26,159

Haffsta

958

698

53.4

46.1

27,552

Husum

1,021

783

62.7

36.3

21,559

Hörnett

1,980

1,478

59.7

39.2

29,957

Järved

1,278

956

59.7

38.9

27,826

Kroksta

1,539

1,161

61.3

37.5

29,220

Köpmanholmen

1,603

1,231

59.0

39.7

24,642

Mellansel

1,002

756

66.7

32.4

22,375

1,218

930

54.9

43.5

26,874

Norrflärke-Solberg

645

522

64.6

35.4

23,559

Norrlungånger

1,207

919

62.7

34.6

21,586

Nätra-Landsbygd

1,864

1,454

58.5

40.3

26,913

Ovansjö

1,156

876

53.5

44.2

28,064

Prästbordet

1,848

1,402

52.4

45.7

27,451

Sidensjö Skorped

1,704

1,325

59.6

39.3

24,362

Sjukhuset

1,181

1,015

57.9

39.6

22,623

Skyttis

1,753

1,412

64.2

34.5

21,423

Sund

2,313

1,778

59.4

39.8

26,601

Svartby-Brösta

1,028

780

58.8

40.8

28,503

Valhalla

1,644

1,139

69.5

29.4

18,031

Åsdalen

1,363

1,192

61.2

38.0

22,850

Östra

1,647

1,176

64.8

34.3

20,332

Översjäla

2,093

1,521

59.4

39.4

29,042

Övre

1,255

1,065

62.2

36.0

22,461

Source: SVT^[3]

Transportation

Main road transportations are provided by the European route E4. The Örnsköldsvik Airport provides daily flights to and from the Stockholm-Arlanda Airport courtesy of Höga Kusten Flyg, and also charter flights to Turkey courtesy of Pegasus Airlines. Railway transportation will in the future be provided by high-speed railway Botniabanan, which is currently under construction. There is also a harbour, where cargo ships load and unload timber and other merchandise. In North America the town is known for its excellent hockey players, a number of whom play with the NHL.

Recreation and sports

Due to the hilly surroundings, hiking and exploring the scenery of the High Coast is popular in the area. In the wintertime, skiing is popular. Both cross-country skiing, alpine skiing and even ski jumping is practiced almost in the downtown area. Since Örnsköldsvik is a coastal town, there are also beaches near town, as well as campsites. There's also an indoor water park called Paradisbadet, with one of the longest water slides in Europe.

Sports is also popular, the main spectator sport in town is ice hockey, with the local team Modo Hockey in Swedish Hockey League, the main league for ice hockey in Sweden. The local football teams are not quite as successful, but still pretty popular, on the men's side especially the teams Friska Viljor FC from central Örnsköldsvik and Anundsjö IF from Bredbyn outside of town, and women's Själevads IK. A couple floorball teams from town have also had some success.

Notable people

Örnsköldsvik is the birthplace of many world-famous ice hockey players, including Nils Johansson, Per Svartvadet, Peter Forsberg, Markus Näslund, Niklas Sundström, Andreas Salomonsson, Magnus Wernblom, Mattias Timander, Victor Hedman, Tobias Enström, and the twins Daniel and Henrik Sedin. The Sedin twins were top players for the Vancouver Canucks, and Hedman plays for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Many stars from hockey's previous generation, including Anders Hedberg, Thomas Gradin, and Anders Kallur were also either Örnsköldsvik natives (Hedberg) and/or played in the town for the Modo Hockey club.

Frida Östberg, footballer
Malin Moström, footballer
Miah Persson, soprano
Magdalena Forsberg, cross country skier and biathlete
Hans Hedberg, sculptor known for his ceramic fruit
Märta Norberg, cross country skier
Tomas Haake and Mårten Hagström, musicians, members of Meshuggah
Thomas Hammarberg, diplomat and human rights activist
Niklas Edin, curling player
Fredrik Lindström, biathlete
Mikael Bohman, ice hockey player
Maud Olofsson, politician, leader of the Swedish Centre Party in 2001–2011, Minister for Enterprise and Energy and Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden
Åsa Domeij, politician and agronomist by training, member of the Riksdag in 1988–1991 and 2002–2006
Solveig Hellquist, politician, member of the Riksdag 2002–2010
Emma Nordin, ice hockey player.
Peter Artedi, naturalist, known as the "father of ichthyology"
Malin Hållberg-Leuf, figure skater, Swedish national champion
Eilert Pilarm, Elvis impersonator
Kristina Lundberg, ice hockey player, Olympic medalist

Notable residents

Markus Näslund, and twin brothers Daniel and Henrik Sedin, are all from Örnsköldsvik Municipality; Naslund played for the Vancouver Canucks from 1996 to 2008 and his number was retired by the team in honour of his many accomplishments in December 2010, while the Sedins are captain and deputy captain of the team in 2010–11.

Twin towns – sister cities

Örnsköldsvik is twinned with:^[4]

Äänekoski, Finland
Hveragerði, Iceland
Ikast-Brande, Denmark
Sigdal, Norway
Tarp, Germany

Etymology

The original town was named after County Governor Per Abraham Örnsköld
The name Örnsköldsvik is sometimes unofficially translated into English as Eagleshieldsbay.

References

^ "Statistiska centralbyrån, Kommunarealer den 1 januari 2014" (in Swedish). Statistics Sweden. 1 January 2014. Archived from the original (Microsoft Excel) on 27 September 2016. Retrieved 18 April 2014.
^ "Folkmängd och befolkningsförändringar - Kvartal 4, 2023" (in Swedish). Statistics Sweden. 22 February 2024. Retrieved 22 February 2024.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Valresultat 2022 för Örnsköldsvik i riksdagsvalet" (in Swedish). SVT. 11 September 2022. Retrieved 23 January 2024.
^ "Föreningen Norden - 70 år". allehanda.se (in Swedish). Allehanda. 12 April 2017. Retrieved 29 April 2021.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Örnsköldsvik Municipality.

Örnsköldsvik – Official site
Örnsköldsvik Guide
Örnsköldsvik Tourist Information (available in English, German and Swedish)
Mid-Sweden University College at Örnsköldsvik
Campus Örnsköldsvik at Umeå University
(in English) Örnsköldsvik airport
(in Swedish) article Örnsköldsvik from Nordisk Familjebok (1922).

Municipalities and seats of Västernorrland County

Municipalities

Municipal seats

v t e Localities in Örnsköldsvik Municipality, Västernorrland County, Sweden
Localities	Åmynnet Arnäsvall Billsta Bjästa Björna Bredbyn Gideå Gimåt Gottne Husum Köpmanholmen Långviksmon Mellansel Moliden Örnsköldsvik (seat) Överhörnäs Sidensjö Västerhus