Pajala Municipality

Pajala Municipality
Pajala kommun
Municipality
Pajala Airport
Pajala Airport
Coat of arms of Pajala Municipality
Coat of arms
Coordinates: 67°11′N 23°22′E / 67.183°N 23.367°E / 67.183; 23.367
CountrySweden
CountyNorrbotten County
SeatPajala
Area
[1]
 • Total
8,050.73 km2 (3,108.40 sq mi)
 • Land7,840.19 km2 (3,027.11 sq mi)
 • Water210.54 km2 (81.29 sq mi)
 Area as of 1 January 2014.
Population
 (31 December 2023)[2]
 • Total
5,871
 • Density0.73/km2 (1.9/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)
ISO 3166 codeSE
ProvinceNorrbotten
Municipal code2521
Websitewww.pajala.se

Pajala Municipality (Swedish: Pajala kommun; Meänkieli and Finnish: Pajalan kunta) is a municipality in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden, bordering Finland. Its seat is located in the locality of Pajala.

In 1884 Tärendö was detached from Pajala Municipality, forming a municipality of its own. In 1914 Pajala Municipality was once again split when Junosuando broke away. They were reunited in 1971, when Korpilombolo was added as well.

Finnish and Meänkieli have the official status of being minority languages in the municipality.[3]

History

Pajala vicar's mansion, (Læstadiuspörtet)

Its geographical location infers that Pajala Municipality has always been a natural trading place, where people from Sweden, Finland and the native Sami people gathered. The annual Pajala market traces its history from the 18th century.

The home of Lars Levi Læstadius, famed botanist and Christian revivalist movement founder is located in Pajala. It is the red house to the right; it is now a museum. The yellow house in the middle was used as the local Lutheran vicar's mansion from 1850 up to present day.

Geography

The municipality is one of Sweden's largest, geographically, at around 8,000 km², or roughly the size of the historical province of Södermanland, which - compared to Pajala Municipality's population of approximately 6,500 - has more than one million inhabitants.

In Pajala is also Jupukkamasten, a 335 metre tall guyed mast for FM- and TV-transmission, which together with three other guyed masts of the same height is the tallest structure in Sweden.

Localities

There are four localities (or urban areas) in Pajala Municipality:[4]

# Locality Population
1 Pajala 1,985
2 Korpilombolo 548
3 Junosuando 345
4 Kangos 278

The municipal seat in bold

Demographics

This is a demographic table based on Pajala Municipality's electoral districts in the 2022 Swedish general election sourced from SVT's election platform, in turn taken from SCB official statistics.[5]

In total there were 4,657 Swedish citizens of voting age resident in the municipality.[5] 56.0% voted for the left coalition and 42.7% for the right coalition. Indicators are in percentage points except population totals and income.

Government and politics

Riksdag

These are the results since the 1972 municipal reform. Norrbotten Party participated in 1994 but the results were not published by SCB due to the party's small size at the time.

Year Turnout Votes V S MP C L KD M SD ND NP/SP
1973[6] 88.4 6,065 24.2 44.6 0.0 17.6 3.2 2.3 7.7 0.0 0.0 0.0
1976[7] 88.7 5,978 22.4 46.7 0.0 17.1 2.8 2.1 8.2 0.0 0.0 0.0
1979[8] 89.0 5,877 19.6 45.9 0.0 14.0 3.2 2.5 9.4 0.0 0.0 0.0
1982[9] 88.3 5,841 19.5 50.3 0.5 11.9 1.6 2.1 10.2 0.0 0.0 0.0
1985[10] 87.4 5,791 19.6 53.0 0.4 11.6 4.9 0.0 10.4 0.0 0.0 0.0
1988[11] 81.9 5,341 18.4 51.1 2.1 9.7 5.2 2.9 8.1 0.0 0.0 0.0
1991[12] 81.8 5,192 18.6 50.1 1.3 8.4 4.4 4.8 8.1 0.0 2.8 0.0
1994[13] 84.8 5,394 20.3 50.4 2.1 6.1 3.4 3.3 8.2 0.0 0.3 0.0
1998[14] 80.6 4,861 30.1 42.4 2.1 4.4 1.6 7.6 9.4 0.0 0.0 0.0
2002[15] 77.8 4,392 19.5 35.5 2.5 4.2 2.2 7.9 5.0 0.0 0.0 21.6
2006[16] 77.1 4,049 22.8 45.9 2.1 4.8 2.3 5.6 10.0 1.4 0.0 4.2
2010[17] 81.5 4,100 18.8 51.3 2.1 3.3 2.1 5.5 12.6 3.9 0.0 0.0
2014[18] 80.9 4,024 17.9 46.2 2.3 3.3 1.6 5.3 9.5 11.4 0.0 0.0

Blocs

This lists the relative strength of the socialist and centre-right blocs since 1973, but parties not elected to the Riksdag are inserted as "other", including the Sweden Democrats results from 1988 to 2006, but also the Christian Democrats pre-1991 and the Greens in 1982, 1985 and 1991. The sources are identical to the table above. The coalition or government mandate marked in bold formed the government after the election. New Democracy got elected in 1991 but are still listed as "other" due to the short lifespan of the party. "Elected" is the total number of percentage points from the municipality that went to parties who were elected to the Riksdag.

Year Turnout Votes Left Right SD Other Elected
1973 88.4 6,065 68.8 28.5 0.0 2.7 97.3
1976 88.7 5,978 69.1 28.1 0.0 2.8 97.2
1979 89.0 5,877 65.5 26.6 0.0 7.9 92.1
1982 88.3 5,841 69.8 23.7 0.0 6.5 93.5
1985 87.4 5,791 72.6 26.9 0.0 0.5 99.5
1988 81.9 5,341 71.6 23.0 0.0 5.4 94.6
1991 81.8 5,192 68.7 25.7 0.0 5.6 97.2
1994 84.8 5,394 72.8 21.0 0.0 6.2 93.8
1998 80.6 4,861 74.6 23.0 0.0 2.4 97.6
2002 77.8 4,392 57.5 19.3 0.0 23.2 76.8
2006 77.1 4,049 70.8 22.7 0.0 6.5 93.5
2010 81.5 4,100 72.2 23.5 3.9 0.4 99.6
2014 80.9 4,024 66.4 19.7 11.4 2.5 97.5

Distribution of the 33 seats in the municipal council after the 2010 election:

Results of the 2010 Swedish general election in Pajala:

Sister cities

Pajala Municipality has three sister cities:[19]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Statistiska centralbyrån, Kommunarealer den 1 januari 2014" (in Swedish). Statistics Sweden. 2014-01-01. Archived from the original (Microsoft Excel) on 2016-09-27. Retrieved 2014-04-18.
  2. ^ "Folkmängd och befolkningsförändringar - Kvartal 4, 2023" (in Swedish). Statistics Sweden. February 22, 2024. Retrieved February 22, 2024.
  3. ^ Welcome to Pajala
  4. ^ Statistics Sweden as of December 31, 2005
  5. ^ a b c "Valresultat 2022 för Pajala i riksdagsvalet" (in Swedish). SVT. 11 September 2022. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  6. ^ "Riksdagsvalet 1973 (page 168)" (PDF) (in Swedish). SCB. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  7. ^ "Riksdagsvalet 1976 (page 163)" (PDF) (in Swedish). SCB. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  8. ^ "Riksdagsvalet 1979 (page 187)" (PDF) (in Swedish). SCB. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  9. ^ "Riksdagsvalet 1982 (page 188)" (PDF) (in Swedish). SCB. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  10. ^ "Riksdagsvalet 1985 (page 190)" (PDF) (in Swedish). SCB. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  11. ^ "Riksdagsvalet 1988 (page 169)" (PDF) (in Swedish). SCB. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  12. ^ "Riksdagsvalet 1991 (page 32)" (PDF) (in Swedish). SCB. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  13. ^ "Riksdagsvalet 1994 (page 46)" (PDF) (in Swedish). SCB. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  14. ^ "Riksdagsvalet 1998 (page 43)" (PDF) (in Swedish). SCB. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  15. ^ "Valresultat Riksdag Pajala kommun 2002" (in Swedish). Valmyndigheten. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  16. ^ "Valresultat Riksdag Pajala kommun 2006" (in Swedish). Valmyndigheten. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  17. ^ "Valresultat Riksdag Pajala kommun 2010" (in Swedish). Valmyndigheten. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  18. ^ "Valresultat Riksdag Pajala kommun 2014" (in Swedish). Valmyndigheten. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  19. ^ Official site[permanent dead link‍] (in Swedish)
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