Editing Nykarleby (section)

==History==
The town is located at the mouth of the {{Ill|Lapua River|fi|Lapuanjoki|sv|Lappo å}}. The name of the place was {{Lang|fi|Lapuan Joensuu}} or 'mouth of Lapua river'. The municipality was founded in 1607 by merging parts of [[Pedersöre]] and [[Vörå]] into a new parish. In 1620, the small village of '''Lepua''' was [[Royal charter|chartered]] as a city, with the Swedish name {{Lang|sv|Nykarleby}}, which means 'New Karleby'; the Finnish name is a Finnicized version of the same. The town was chartered in the same year as the nearby city of [[Kokkola]], or in Swedish, {{Lang|sv|Gamlakarleby}} (later, {{Lang|sv|Karleby}}).

The [[Battle of Nykarleby|battles of Nykarleby]] and [[Battle of Jutas|Jutas]] were fought there between Swedish and Russian troops during the [[Finnish War]] in 1808.

[[Zacharias Topelius]], an important author in Finland, was born in Nykarleby.

In 1995, the small, idyllic town was ranked as "the happiest city in Finland" in a controversial article in ''[[Helsingin Sanomat]]'', the leading newspaper of Finland.<ref>Helsingin Sanomat Kuukausiliite, January 1995. [http://www2.hs.fi/extrat/kuukausiliite/arkisto/1995/01/] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080309001055/http://www2.hs.fi/extrat/kuukausiliite/arkisto/1995/01/|date=9 March 2008}}. Externally referred to in: Asiakastieto. Luottolista 2000. [http://www.asiakastieto.fi/luottoriski/j_ll_hakutulosartikkeli.jsp?l1=6&l2=1&v=2000&A=249]{{Dead link|date=April 2020|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> Nykarleby has the highest concentration of Ukrainian speakers in Finland.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

{{Pie chart
|thumb = left
|caption = Population by mother tongue in 2021<ref>{{cite web | url=https://pxnet2.stat.fi/PXWeb/pxweb/fi/StatFin/StatFin__vrm__vaerak/statfin_vaerak_pxt_11rm.px/ | title=Väestö 31.12. Muuttujina Alue, Kieli, Sukupuoli, Vuosi ja Tiedot }}</ref>
|label1 = Swedish
|value1 = 85.3
|color1 = gold
|label2 = Finnish
|value2 = 6.7
|color2 = darkblue
|label3 = Ukrainian
|value3 = 2.1
|color3 = green
|label4 = Vietnamese
|value4 = 1.2
|color4 = red
|label5 = Other
|value5 = 4.7
|color5 = gray
}}