Korsnäs

Korsnäs is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the Ostrobothnia region.

This article is about the municipality of Finland. For other uses, see Korsnäs (disambiguation).

Korsnäs
Municipality
Korsnäs kommun
Korsnäsin kunta
Coat of arms of Korsnäs
Coat of arms
Location of Korsnäs in Finland
Location of Korsnäs in Finland
Coordinates: 62°47′N 021°11′E
Country Finland
RegionOstrobothnia
Sub-regionVaasa sub-region
Charter1887
Government
 • Municipal managerChristina Båssar
Area
 (2018-01-01)[1]
 • Total1,424.71 km2 (550.08 sq mi)
 • Land235.65 km2 (90.98 sq mi)
 • Water1,189.06 km2 (459.10 sq mi)
 • Rank252nd largest in Finland
Population
 (2023-02-28)[2]
 • Total2,023
 • Rank257th largest in Finland
 • Density8.58/km2 (22.2/sq mi)
Population by native language
[3]
 • Swedish91.2% (official)
 • Finnish3.2%
 • Others5.5%
Population by age
[4]
 • 0 to 1414.5%
 • 15 to 6456.3%
 • 65 or older29.2%
Time zoneUTC+02:00 (EET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+03:00 (EEST)
Websitewww.korsnas.fi

Geography

Korsnäs is the most western mainland municipality in Finland. It covers an area of 1,424.71 square kilometres (550.08 sq mi) of which 1,189.06 km2 (459.10 sq mi) is water.[1]

It has a long, rocky coastline along the Gulf of Bothnia. The three largest islands are Halsön, Bredskäret and Södra Björkön, all used as important recreation areas for urban dwellers.[5]

History

Due to the post-glacial rebound, most of the area that today forms the municipality of Korsnäs stood under water until around 1000 A.D. The first settlement in Korsnäs is assumed to stem from the 13th century.[6] Some place names of Finnish origin (such as Molpe (Moikipää) and Taklax (Takalaksi)) indicate a Finnish-speaking presence in the 13th century, although it is disputed if these people (probably from Häme) only used the area for fishing on a seasonly basis[7] or if they established a proper, but sparse, settlement.[8] Swedish-speaking settlers came to the area in the 13th or 14th century.

Population

The municipality has a population of 2,023 (28 February 2023),[2] which make it the smallest municipality in Ostrobothnia in terms of population. The population density is 8.58 inhabitants per square kilometre (22.2/sq mi). The municipality is bilingual with Swedish as the majority language and Finnish as the minority language.[9] Until 2014 Swedish was the sole official language. 91.2% of the population speaks Swedish, 3.2% Finnish and 5.5% other languages as their first language.

Politics

In the 2017 Municipal elections Swedish People's Party got 95 percent of the vote, which obtained it each of the 21 seats of the municipality council.[10]

Name

Korsnäs is the municipality's official name in both Swedish and Finnish. The Finnish names Korsnääsi or Ristitaipale[11] are known to have been used historically in some contexts.

Korsnäs was first mentioned in historical documents is 1442, and some individual villages, like Molpe (then called Moikipä) was first mentioned in 1490, and Harrström (then called Harffuaström) in 1494. Korsnäs became an independent municipality in 1887. Prior to that, the area belonged to Närpes.[12]

References
  1. "Area of Finnish Municipalities 1.1.2018" (PDF). National Land Survey of Finland. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
  2. "Preliminary population structure by area, 2022M01*-2023M02*". StatFin (in Finnish). Statistics Finland. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  3. "Population according to language and the number of foreigners and land area km2 by area as of 31 December 2008". Statistics Finland's PX-Web databases. Statistics Finland. Retrieved 29 March 2009.
  4. "Population according to age (1-year) and sex by area and the regional division of each statistical reference year, 2003–2020". StatFin. Statistics Finland. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
  5. "Korsnäs". archipelago.nu. Archived from the original on 19 July 2001. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
  6. Johan Ulfvens: "Korsnäsbor och korsnäsbyar". In: Korsnäs historia. Korsnäs 1981, pp. 9–25, p. 16.
  7. Olov Ahlbäck: "Österbottnisk medeltid". In: Svenska Österbottens historia I. Vasa 1977, pp. 45–56.
  8. Lars Huldén: "Vad berättar ortnamnen om den svenska bosättningens uppkomst i Finland?" In: Ann-Marie Ivars and Lena Huldén [eds.]: När kom svenskarna till Finland?. Helsingfors 2002, pp. 63–80, p. 69
  9. Korsnäsista ja Luodosta kaksikieliset kunnat, YLE 30 December 2014, accessed 1 January 2015.
  10. Kommunalval 2017, YLE resultattjänst, accessed 6 July 2019.
  11. See Archived 30 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  12. "Tämä domain on varattu | www.matkailupohjanmaa.fi". www.matkailupohjanmaa.fi. Retrieved 6 May 2021.

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