Karlskoga Municipality

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This page deals with both Karlskoga Municipality and the urban area (tätort) Karlskoga
Karlskoga Municipality (Kommun)

Map outlining municipalities of Sweden
Coat of arms
Municipal facts
Seat Karlskoga
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County Örebro County
Province Värmland
Area
Rank
471 km²
180th of 290
Population
Rank
(2003)
30,343
of 290
Density 64.5/km²

Karlskoga Municipality (population 31,293) is a Municipality, in Örebro County, in central Sweden. Its seat is in Karlskoga (pop. 28,000).

Contents

[edit] Geography

Karlskoga is part of a traditionally forest and mountain covered region, in Örebro County.

Such areas have traditionally been financially poor. This led to a significant Swedish emigration to North America from the disctrict in the latter half of the 19th century. Stockholm, Wisconsin was for instance founded in 1854 by immigrants from Karlskoga.

[edit] History

For centuries, Karlskoga was a small forest and mining community, not even a parish of its own. In the 17th century fourteen small iron works and eight waterdriven hammers for bar iron were established. Most of these were still operating in the 1860s, but the dominating iron works was the one in nearby Bofors. In 1871, Bofors produced 6,124 metric tons of iron, more than any other plant in Sweden. In 1882, Karlskoga parish/municipality (socken) had 11,184 inhabitants.


[edit] Industry

Bofors was incorporated in 1873 and has since the 1880s been specializing in the lucrative manufacture of cannon. Karlskoga has spent most of the 20th century as a growing company town to this cannon manufacturer. Only with the demilitarization in the most recent decades has this started to be a problem for the town. There were 8,500 workers in Bofors in 1980, but the number had decreased to 2,600 in 1998.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


Örebro County
Askersund | Degerfors | Hallsberg | Hällefors | Karlskoga | Kumla | Laxå | Lekeberg | Lindesberg | Ljusnarsberg | Nora | Örebro
Counties of Sweden | Sweden