Skellefteå Municipality

History

Most of the amalgamations leading to the present municipality took place in 1967 when the then "City of Skellefteå" was merged with the rural municipality by the same name and also with the municipalities Jörn, Bureå and Byske. The enlarged city became a municipality of unitary type with the new local government act in 1971, and in 1974 the municipalities Burträsk and Lövånger were added.

Geography

The municipality borders in the south to Robertsfors Municipality, and clockwise to Umeå, Vindeln, Norsjö, Arvidsjaur and Piteå municipalities. Skellefteå is the largest coastline municipality by area, being roughly 15 percent larger than the second largest, Örnsköldsvik Municipality.

Skellefteå is situated around Skellefte River, a river that runs through the city. There is also a very central mountain, Vitberget, which is popular for skiing in the wintertime, and hiking in the summer.

Localities

There are 20 localities (or urban areas) in Skellefteå Municipality:

The municipal seat in bold

Economy

The largest employer in Skellefteå Municipality is the mining company Boliden AB, with about 1,200 employees, in some mines around Boliden and two metallurgical plants, one in Boliden and the other one, Rönnskärsverken near Skelleftehamn. Alimak produces elevators.

Elections

Riksdag

These are the results of the elections to the Riksdag for Skellefteå Municipality since the 1972 municipal reform. SCB did not publish the party's results for the Sweden Democrats between 1988 and 1998 because of the party's small size nationally.

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.

Demographics

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

There were 73,333 residents, including 56,888 Swedish citizens of voting age. 63.1% voted for the left coalition and 35.7% for the right coalition. Indicators are in percentage points except population totals and income.

Twin towns – sister cities

Skellefteå is twinned with:

Pardubice, Czech Republic

Raahe, Finland

Rana, Norway

Tongling, China

Vesthimmerland, Denmark

Notable natives

Jan Erixon, ice hockey player

Andreas Hedlund, musician

Stieg Larsson, journalist and author of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Joakim Nyström, tennis player

Victoria Silvstedt, model

Margot Wallström, politician

The Wannadies, pop group