Tornio
| Tornio | ||
|---|---|---|
| Town | ||
Tornio Church in late-December 2000
|
||
|
||
 Location of Tornio in Finland |
||
| Coordinates: 65°51′N 024°09′E / 65.850°N 24.150°ECoordinates: 65°51′N 024°09′E / 65.850°N 24.150°E | ||
| Country | Finland | |
| Region | Lapland | |
| Sub-region | Kemi-Tornio sub-region | |
| Charter | 1621 | |
| Government | ||
| • Town manager | Raimo Ronkainen | |
| Area (2011-01-01) | ||
| • Total | 1,348.55 km2 (520.68 sq mi) | |
| • Land | 1,186.96 km2 (458.29 sq mi) | |
| • Water | 161.59 km2 (62.39 sq mi) | |
| Area rank | 80th largest in Finland | |
| Population (2016-03-31) | ||
| • Total | 22,187 | |
| • Rank | 47th largest in Finland | |
| • Density | 18.69/km2 (48.4/sq mi) | |
| Population by native language | ||
| • Finnish | 98.3% (official) | |
| • Swedish | 0.3% | |
| • Others | 1.3% | |
| Population by age | ||
| • 0 to 14 | 18.5% | |
| • 15 to 64 | 66.4% | |
| • 65 or older | 15.1% | |
| Time zone | EET (UTC+2) | |
| • Summer (DST) | EEST (UTC+3) | |
| Municipal tax rate | 20% | |
| Website | www.tornio.fi | |
Tornio (official name: Tornion kaupunki; in Northern Sami: Duortnus; in Swedish: Torneå) is a city and municipality in Lapland, Finland. The city forms a cross-border twin city together with Haparanda on the Swedish side. The municipality covers an area of 1,348.55 square kilometres (520.68 sq mi), of which 161.59 km2 (62.39 sq mi) is water. The population density is 18.69 inhabitants per square kilometre (48.4/sq mi), with a total population of 22,187 (31 March 2016). It borders the Swedish municipality of Haparanda (in Finnish: Haaparanta). In spite of being a border city Tornio is unilingually Finnish with a negligible number of Swedish speakers.
The delta of the Torne river has been inhabited since the end of the last ice age, and there are currently (1995) 16 settlement sites (boplatsvallar) known in the area, similar to those found in Vuollerim (c. 6000–5000 BC). The Swedish part of the region is not far from the oldest permanent settlement site found in Scandinavia. A former hypothesis that this region was uninhabited and "colonised" from the Viking Age onward has now been abandoned.
The church spire at Tornio was one of the landmarks used by de Maupertuis in his measurements. The church was constructed in 1686 by Matti Joosepinpoika Härmä.
Until the 19th century, inhabitants of the surrounding countryside spoke Finnish, and Kemi Sami, a language of the Eastern Sami group similar to Finnish, while those of the town were mainly Swedish-speaking.
...
Wikipedia