Östersund Municipality

Östersund Municipality (Swedish: Östersunds kommun, Southern Sami: Staaren tjïelte) is a municipality in Jämtland County in northern Sweden. Its seat is located in Östersund, which is also the county seat of Jämtland County.

Östersund Municipality Östersunds kommun
Municipality
Östersund city hall
Coat of arms
Coordinates: 63°11′N 14°40′E
Country	Sweden
County	Jämtland County
Seat	Östersund
Area
• Total	2,501.08 km2 (965.67 sq mi)
• Land	2,208.31 km2 (852.63 sq mi)
• Water	292.77 km2 (113.04 sq mi)
	Area as of 1 January 2014.
Population  (31 December 2023)
• Total	64,881
• Density	26/km2 (67/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	SE
Province	Jämtland
Municipal code	2380
Website	www.ostersund.se

The present municipality was formed in 1971 by the amalgamation of the City of Östersund with five surrounding rural municipalities.

Localities

There are ten localities (or urban areas) in Östersund Municipality:

#	Locality	Population
1	Östersund (part of)	43,359
2	Brunflo	3,916
3	Lit	1,051
4	Ope	441
5	Tandsbyn	396
6	Häggenås	351
7	Orrviken	239
8	Optand	238
9	Marieby	218
10	Fåker	209

The municipal seat in bold

Politics and governance

Swedish municipalities are responsible for government-mandated duties, and elections for the municipal council (kommunfullmäktige) are held every four years, parallel to the general elections.

Political history

Östersund gained a city council (stadsfullmäktige) in 1863, known as Östersunds stad, and each member was elected through a single-winner voting system. Sweden was democratized in the end of the 1910s and a more parliamentarian election system was introduced. Östersund continued to be governed by the burghers, unlike Sweden nationally. The dominating parties were the conservatives, the freeminded and the social democrats. The latter did become the single largest party in 1938 but due to a strong centre-right majority it remained in opposition. The only other party present in Östersund was the communists, though they had little support in the city, having entered the city council in 1922 and lost representation completely in 1930. The conservatives was by far the largest party and had a majority of its own with 18 seats in 1922. After the municipal elections of 1950 the situation had changed. The conservatives was the smallest party with 10 seats, the liberals (now represented by the Liberal People's party) had 11 and the social democrats 19. This was in contrast to the turnout on a national level, where the social democrats had been the dominant party for over a decade gaining e.g. 46 percent of the votes in the general elections of 1948. In 1952 a social democrat was appointed chairman of Östersund's governing body, due to the lack of political blocs and the strive for mutual agreements.

A majority for the social democrats was achieved first in 1962. The political scene was shortly afterwards altered, in 1966, when the agrian and rural Centre Party (previously known as Peasant's League) got into the city council, after broadening its scope to include non-farmers, alongside the Christian Democrats (though not present on the national political scene) and the communists returning after a 40-year period of absence. The burghers was thus back in power. Following the rise of Swedish welfare the small municipalities could not cope with their assigned duties. As a result, large municipality blocks were introduced and Östersunds stad was heavily enlarged and several districts kilometres away from the city were included in the new Östersund Municipality.

The first election for the new municipality was held in 1970 and it was a large success for the Centre Party, both locally in Östersund and nationally due to its opposition towards centralisation. Having entered in 1966 with 4 seats it now possessed one fourth of the total number of seats (which was mainly due to support from the city, not the newly included rural areas). Block politics formation became prominent and the Centre Party became the leading party for the centre-right block, whilst the Social Democrats came to dominate the left block. The Social Democrats regained power in 1980 and has since governed Östersund Municipality until present day (excluding a brief period in the 1990s) supported by the communists (after 1991 known as the Left Party) and occasionally the Green Party. The Green Party has been in the municipal council since 1982.

Demographics

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

Residents include everyone registered as living in the district, regardless of age or citizenship status. Valid voters indicate Swedish citizens above the age of 18 who therefore can vote in general elections. Left vote and right vote indicate the result between the two major blocs in said district in the 2022 general election. Employment indicates the share of people between the ages of 20 and 64 who are working taxpayers. Foreign background is defined as residents either born abroad or with two parents born outside of Sweden. Median income is the received monthly income through either employment, capital gains or social grants for the median adult above 20, also including pensioners in Swedish kronor. The section about college graduates indicates any degree accumulated after high school.

In total there were 49,635 Swedish citizens of voting age resident in the municipality. 58.5% voted for the left coalition and 40.2% 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 % % Brittsbo-Lugnviksstrand 1,531 1,049 59.5 39.6 92 93 7 30,600 57 Brunflo Storviken 2,168 1,668 54.1 45.2 82 94 6 25,230 32 Brunflo Södergård 1,476 1,116 55.6 42.7 84 89 11 24,790 35 Brunflo Änge 1,383 1,094 56.9 42.4 85 92 8 22,237 35 Centrala Lit 1,167 852 56.3 42.9 78 86 14 21,525 29 Eriksberg-Solliden 1,750 1,476 61.7 37.4 79 92 8 25,708 64 Erikslund-Blomängen 1,620 1,240 62.4 36.7 86 90 10 27,683 56 Frösödal 1,474 1,180 62.9 36.0 85 90 10 26,782 57 Fåker-Tandsbyn 1,976 1,550 57.1 41.8 85 94 6 24,169 35 Hornsberg Nedre 1,120 956 61.0 36.3 79 90 10 22,821 47 Hornsberg Övre 1,082 887 59.5 39.5 80 87 13 25,261 52 Häggenås 1,162 909 50.9 46.6 86 95 5 24,098 33 Karlslund 1,306 1,092 59.7 39.4 85 92 8 27,635 59 Körfältet 1,522 1,092 60.8 37.5 73 71 29 21,302 28 Lit-Landsbygd 2,072 1,615 50.3 47.5 88 96 4 27,265 39 Lugnviks C 1,571 1,312 61.0 37.8 80 87 13 22,642 35 Marieby 1,668 1,204 51.3 47.8 91 95 5 30,467 57 Marielund-Odenskog 1,182 830 62.5 36.5 67 74 26 20,615 39 Nedre Blomängen 1,133 986 59.1 39.4 83 92 8 24,160 47 Norr 1,345 948 57.5 41.3 79 85 15 27,923 60 N Frösön-Lövsta 2,419 1,734 60.6 38.5 82 90 10 28,845 63 Norra Odenslund 1,573 1,285 56.9 41.3 78 80 20 23,191 47 Odensala Nedre 2,166 1,646 56.9 42.2 90 95 5 29,609 56 Odensala Tavelbäcken 1,773 1,396 59.5 39.3 85 89 11 24,833 48 Odensala Övre 1,694 1,283 63.5 36.1 88 94 6 28,887 56 Orrviken 1,433 1,052 54.9 43.7 90 95 5 27,612 48 Sjukhusområdet 1,447 1,242 64.0 35.3 76 84 16 24,632 52 Storsjöstrand-Odensvik 1,987 1,567 56.8 42.2 84 89 11 25,552 47 Söder 1,393 1,161 58.8 39.3 80 85 15 23,751 44 Södra Odenslund 1,409 1,226 62.2 36.6 81 93 7 26,297 52 S Valla-Mjäle 1,851 1,390 61.2 37.9 81 88 12 26,969 56 Torvalla By-Ope 1,228 915 54.1 44.7 84 91 9 28,428 47 Torvalla C 1,652 1,009 63.8 32.2 65 53 47 17,934 22 Torvalla Fjällmon 2,242 1,681 65.8 32.7 81 88 12 25,339 42 Torvalla Skogsmon 1,310 895 56.1 41.6 78 80 20 24,495 32 Torvalla Ängsmon 1,486 963 52.6 45.5 78 82 18 23,655 26 Universitetet 1,597 1,310 59.4 37.8 71 79 21 21,358 51 Västra Frösön 1,541 1,155 62.2 37.7 88 94 6 30,006 66 Östberg 1,307 1,084 60.5 38.6 81 90 10 25,647 50 Östersund nedre C 1,699 1,478 56.2 42.4 72 82 18 22,108 46 Östersund övre C 1,332 1,107 51.6 47.0 80 80 20 24,529 42 Source: SVT

See also

• List of governors of Jämtland County
• Rensved
• Swedish Armed Forces
• Swedish Air Force
• Biathlon World Championships

External links

• Östersund Municipality - Official site