Örnsköldsvik Municipality

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.

Örnsköldsvik Municipality Örnsköldsviks kommun
Municipality
Örnsköldsvik former city hall, now a school.
Coat of arms
Coordinates: 63°17′N 18°44′E
Country	Sweden
County	Västernorrland County
Seat	Örnsköldsvik
Area
• 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)
• 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.

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
  • Solberg
• 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.

In total there were 55,778 residents, including 43,029 Swedish citizens of voting age. 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 87 95 5 27,692 37 Billsta 706 542 52.8 45.9 87 96 4 27,645 42 Bjästa 1,820 1,444 61.4 37.6 79 86 14 21,783 32 Björna N 1,115 868 52.5 44.7 79 88 12 21,955 28 Björna S 679 545 61.4 37.7 87 97 3 26,574 29 Bonäset 1,944 1,449 56.0 43.5 89 96 4 31,980 60 Bredbyn-Sörflärke 1,890 1,535 60.1 38.6 85 94 6 23,055 28 Centrum 1,999 1,876 53.2 45.6 78 90 10 25,093 41 Domsjö S 1,216 902 61.9 37.2 85 93 7 27,360 42 Domsjö V 1,786 1,352 56.7 42.6 86 91 9 29,578 43 Gene 1,694 1,154 56.5 41.6 72 81 19 22,749 35 Gideå 1,084 855 56.0 43.1 87 94 6 24,361 28 Gimåt-Högland 1,445 1,055 57.5 42.0 89 94 6 30,119 54 Grundsunda N 1,273 1,011 53.2 45.3 82 92 8 26,144 28 Grundsunda S 640 559 51.9 47.3 88 94 6 28,704 42 Gullänget 1,929 1,351 58.5 40.6 84 87 13 26,159 40 Haffsta 958 698 53.4 46.1 87 93 7 27,552 39 Husum 1,021 783 62.7 36.3 71 80 20 21,559 22 Hörnett 1,980 1,478 59.7 39.2 86 93 7 29,957 46 Järved 1,278 956 59.7 38.9 86 94 6 27,826 52 Kroksta 1,539 1,161 61.3 37.5 89 95 5 29,220 46 Köpmanholmen 1,603 1,231 59.0 39.7 80 92 8 24,642 34 Mellansel 1,002 756 66.7 32.4 82 85 15 22,375 29 Mo 1,218 930 54.9 43.5 87 97 3 26,874 35 Norrflärke-Solberg 645 522 64.6 35.4 83 95 5 23,559 32 Norrlungånger 1,207 919 62.7 34.6 73 76 24 21,586 34 Nätra-Landsbygd 1,864 1,454 58.5 40.3 86 94 6 26,913 32 Ovansjö 1,156 876 53.5 44.2 89 96 4 28,064 42 Prästbordet 1,848 1,402 52.4 45.7 86 91 9 27,451 41 Sidensjö Skorped 1,704 1,325 59.6 39.3 86 94 6 24,362 32 Sjukhuset 1,181 1,015 57.9 39.6 81 86 14 22,623 41 Skyttis 1,753 1,412 64.2 34.5 69 70 30 21,423 34 Sund 2,313 1,778 59.4 39.8 84 91 9 26,601 41 Svartby-Brösta 1,028 780 58.8 40.8 90 92 8 28,503 46 Valhalla 1,644 1,139 69.5 29.4 59 55 45 18,031 27 Åsdalen 1,363 1,192 61.2 38.0 79 83 17 22,850 42 Östra 1,647 1,176 64.8 34.3 67 68 32 20,332 39 Översjäla 2,093 1,521 59.4 39.4 87 93 7 29,042 53 Övre 1,255 1,065 62.2 36.0 78 81 19 22,461 35 Source: SVT

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

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Sweden

Örnsköldsvik is twinned with:

• 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.

See also

• 1976 Winter Paralympics
• Modo Hockey

External links

• 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).