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Olofström Municipality

Olofströms kommun
Olofstroem.jpg
Coat of arms of Olofström Municipality
Coat of arms
Olofström Municipality in Blekinge County.png
Country Sweden
County Blekinge County
Seat Olofström
Area
 • Total 415.43 km2 (160.40 sq mi)
 • Land 391.9 km2 (151.3 sq mi)
 • Water 23.53 km2 (9.08 sq mi)
  Area as of January 1, 2010.
Population
 (June 30, 2012)
 • Total 13,081
 • Density 31.4879/km2 (81.553/sq mi)
Time zone UTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST) UTC+2 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code SE
Province Blekinge
Municipal code 1060
Website www.olofstrom.se

Olofström Municipality (Olofströms kommun) is the only landlocked municipality in Blekinge County, South Sweden. It borders to Osby Municipality, Kristianstad Municipality, Bromölla Municipality, Sölvesborg Municipality, Karlshamn Municipality, Tingsryd Municipality, and Älmhult Municipality. The town of Olofström is the seat of the municipality.

The amalgamation of the former units in this area took place in 1967 when the market town Olofström (itself detached from Jämshög in 1941) was merged with Kyrkhult and Jämshög.

Notable person that Olofström counts as theirs is Nobel Prize winning author Harry Martinson (1904-1978; prize in 1974) who was born in Jämshög within the municipality.

Geography

The municipality is covered with forests and lakes. It labels itself "The southernmost wildlife in Sweden", probably because there are scarcely any forests or lakes south of the Blekinge province.

The highest point in the province and county of Blekinge, Rävabacken (189,65 m), is located in the northern part of the municipality.

Urban areas

There are 5 localities classified as urban areas (tätort in Swedish) in Olofström Municipality. In addition to that, there is one more recognized locality.

In the table the urban areas and localities are listed according to the size of the population as of December 31, 2006. The municipal seat is in bold characters.

# Locality Population
1 Olofström 7,425
2 Jämshög 1,605
3 Kyrkhult 1,016
4 Vilshult 327
5 Gränum 208
6 Hemsjö 73

Demographics

This is a demographic table based on Olofström 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 13,243 residents, including 10,168 Swedish citizens of voting age. 44.1% voted for the left coalition and 55.0% for the right coalition. Indicators are in percentage points except population totals and income.

Parishes

  • Jämshög Parish
  • Kyrkhult Parish

Industry

The increased use of cars in the 1950s and 60's was the great boost for the municipality. Today the car industry, dominated by Volvo Cars, is the largest employer in Olofström with 2,400 employees, and some more working in other companies connected to this industry. The Volvo industry, with related production, is probably the main reason that the municipality's commuting surplus (as of 2005) is almost 2,000 a day, with many workers coming from the neighboring municipalities of a.o. Bromölla, Karlshamn and Sölvesborg.

Vilshult is a small village within the municipality, situated 10 km north of the central locality of Olofström. It is recognised for a photovoltaics (PV) modules factory that has been located there since 2001.

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