Mölndal Municipality

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

Mölndal in south-western V. G. County in Sweden

Map outlining municipalities of Sweden
Coat of arms
Mölndal City Arms
Municipal facts
Seat Mölndal
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County Västra Götaland County
Province Västergötland and Halland
Area
Rank
146 km²
262nd of 290
Population
Rank
(2005)
57,752
36th of 290
Density 393/km²

Mölndal Municipality is a municipality in Västra Götaland County, in western Sweden, just south of Gothenburg.

[edit] Geography

Mölndal is the third largest municipality in Västra Götaland County (after Gothenburg and Borås), and about the 20th largest in Sweden. It also has the 18th highest population density in the country.

It is located on the western main line railway between Gothenburg and Malmö and the European highways E6/E20 runs through the area from north to south.

[edit] History

The name of the city derives from two words; Möln, which is a short form for Möllor, an old word for mills, and the word dal, which is the Swedish word for valley. Mölndal is the Valley of mills. The narrow but high and long waterfalls in Kvarnbyn gave the necessary power to all the watermills, that together with the windmills on the hills gave birth to the early industrialisation of Mölndal. The municipality has a cultural and industrial heritage rooted in farming, gardening, milling and paper manufacturing industry.

Mölndal was made into a municipality community on July 7, 1911. (Which is different from the administrative municipality of today). At the time, the 3 km² municipality had some 5,500 inhabitants. In 1922 it was granted a city charter and became one of the now defunct Cities of Sweden. Recently, however, it was decided to once again use City of Mölndal as the official name.

[edit] Industry

Today, Mölndal is mostly know for its high concentration of different companies within the life science-sector. AstraZeneca has one of its global research centres here, currently about 3 100 employees and still growing. Several other companies within pharmaceuticals, biomedicine and biotechnology to mention some research areas, are also located here. The short distance to Göteborg University and Chalmers University of Technology, and their technology parks, has supported a development of other sectors such as microwave technology and information technology. The location of two national research institutes here, IFP SICOMP AB and IVF Industrial Research and development Corporation, further enhance the position within industrial oriented research.

[edit] Population figures

The municipality has three main parts: Mölndal, Kållered and Lindome.

  1. Mölndal has 37,131 inhabitants, located in Västergötland
  2. Kållered has 7,257 inh., located in Västergötland
  3. Lindome, 13,364 inh., located in Halland.

Numbers from 2003.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


Municipalities in Västra Götaland County
Ale | Alingsås | Bengtsfors | Bollebygd | Borås | Dals-Ed | Essunga | Falköping | Färgelanda | Grästorp | Gullspång | Götene | Gothenburg | Herrljunga | Hjo | Härryda | Karlsborg | Kungälv | Lerum | Lidköping | Lilla Edet | Lysekil | Mariestad | Mark | Mellerud | Munkedal | Mölndal | Orust | Partille | Skara | Skövde | Sotenäs | Stenungsund | Strömstad | Svenljunga | Tanum | Tibro | Tidaholm | Tjörn | Tranemo | Trollhättan | Töreboda | Uddevalla | Ulricehamn | Vara | Vårgårda | Vänersborg | Åmål | Öckerö
Counties of Sweden | Sweden