Kotka is located on the coast of the Gulf of Finland at the mouth of Kymi River and it is part of the Kymenlaakso region in southern Finland. The city has a population of 54,342 (31 March 2016) and covers an area of 272.01 square kilometres (105.02 sq mi) of which 678.45 km² (261.95 sq mi) is water. The population density is 200.31 inhabitants per square kilometre (518.8/sq mi). The city centre of Kotka is located at Kotkansaari island.

The Port of Kotka is a major Finnish sea port that serves both the foreign trade of Finland and Russia.

The municipality is officially unilingually Finnish. Historically however, Swedish was the only official language in the city until 1902. From 1902 until 1906, the city was officially bilingual. Kotka also had a Swedish speaking minority (see: Swedish-speaking population of Finland), which in the 1890s accounted for 16% of the city population. Their proportion has steadily decreased and today around 1% of the city's population are Swedish speakers. There is one school in Kotka where Swedish is the language of instruction, Kotka Svenska Samskola, which was founded in 1885.

The Second All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was held in Kotka, on July 21–23 (August 3–5), 1907.

Kotka is twinned with:

The local football team is KTP. Founded in 1927, KTP has long, and successful football history. KTP won the Finnish football championship in 1951 and 1952, and Finnish Cup 4 times, in years 1958, 1961, 1967, and 1980. Currently the club plays in the Finnish second league Ykkönen.

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