Ostrobothnia (region)

Ostrobothnia
Ostrobothnia; Österbottens landskap; Pohjanmaan maakunta
	— Region —
	; Coat of arms
	; Coat of arms
	Ostrobothnia on a map of Finland
Country	Finland
Historical province	Ostrobothnia
	Area
• Total	7,932.36 km2 (3,062.70 sq mi)
	Population (2009)
• Total	175,100
• Density	22/km2 (57/sq mi)
NUTS	195
Regional bird	Common Swift (Apus apus)
Regional fish	Common whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus)
Regional flower	European Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria)
Website	osterbotten.fi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Ostrobothnia (Swedish: Österbotten; Finnish: Pohjanmaa) is a region of Finland. It is located in Western Finland. It borders the regions Central Ostrobothnia, Southern Ostrobothnia, and Satakunta and is one of the four regions making up the historical province of Ostrobothnia.

Ostrobothnia is one of the two Finnish regions with a Swedish speaking majority, the other being Åland. The Swedish-speakers make up 51.2%.^[1] Despite this, the region is linguistically heterogeneous, encompassing both exclusively Finnish and Swedish-speaking municipalities in addition to bilingual ones.

Geographically, Ostrobothnia has little topographical relief, because it is mostly former seafloor brought to surface by post-glacial rebound. Ostrobothnia has both vast expanses of cultivated fields (lakeus) as in Southern Ostrobothnia, and the archipelago of Kvarken (Finnish: Merenkurkku). Glacial transport has deposited large quantities of glacial erratics (rocks) in the area. Like elsewhere in Pohjanmaa, rivers are an important part of the landscape. The major rivers that discharge into the Gulf of Bothnia in Ostrobothnia are Kyrönjoki, Lapuanjoki and Ähtävänjoki.

The regional tree is the Black Alder (Alnus glutinosa), the regional mammal is the Common Elk (Alces alces alces), the regional stone is the Vaasa granite and the regional song is "The march of Vaasa" (Swedish: Vasamarschen, Finnish: Vaasan marssi).

In Finland Swedish circles/communities, Ostrobothnia is often referred to as "Pampas" and a person from Ostrobothnia is called a "Pampees"^[2]

[edit] Municipalities

Main article: Municipalities of Ostrobothnia

There are 16 municipalities in Ostrobothnia region. Cities and towns are marked in bold, and the links are only in the majority language names.

Name in Finnish	Name in Swedish	Population^[3]	Swedish speakers^[4]	Finnish speakers^[4]
Isokyrö	Storkyro	4,936	0.6%	98.9%
Pietarsaari	Jakobstad	19,652	56.4%	40.2%
Kaskinen	Kaskö	1,411	28.1%	68.1%
Mustasaari	Korsholm	18,901	70.2%	28.7%
Korsnäs	Korsnäs	2,244	91.2%	3.2%
Kristiinankaupunki	Kristinestad	7,086	56.6%	42.2%
Kruunupyy	Kronoby	6,676	83.3%	15.6%
Laihia	Laihela	7,948	1%	98.3%
Luoto	Larsmo	4,927	92.5%	6.5%
Maalahti	Malax	5,618	88.2%	9.1%
Närpiö	Närpes	9,412	88.4%	5.8%
Uusikaarlepyy	Nykarleby	7,513	89.3%	8.1%
Pedersöre	Pedersöre	10,934	90.1%	9%
Vaasa	Vasa	60,435	24.8%	69.8%
Vähäkyrö	Lillkyro	4,782	1.7%	97.7%
Vöyri	Vörå	6,720	84.6%	13.6%

Former municipalities:

The current Vörå is the result of consolidation of Maxmo (Finnish: Maksamaa) and Oravais (Finnish: Oravainen).
Nykarleby (Finnish: Uusikaarlepyy) has been merged with Jeppo (Finnish: Jepua).
Korsholm (Finnish: Mustasaari) has been consolidated from the five munipalities of Korsholm, Solf, Replot, Björköby and Kvevlax.
Pedersöre has the former Finnish name Pietarsaaren maalaiskunta (see maalaiskunta).

[edit] Heraldry

An Ostrobothnian expanse.

The bundle is a symbol of the Royal House of Vasa; a Vasa king established the city of Vaasa, the capital of the region. The running weasels are a symbol of Pohjanmaa.