Editing Norrbotten

{{Short description|Historical province of Sweden}}
{{About|the Swedish historical province|the modern county|Norrbotten County}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{Infobox settlement
<!-- See Template:Infobox settlement for additional fields and descriptions -->| name               = Norrbotten
| image_caption      = 
| image_shield       = Norrbottens vapen.svg
| shield_size        = 100px
| motto              = 
| image_map          = Sverigekarta-Landskap Norrbotten.svg
| mapsize            = 250px
| map_alt            = 
| map_caption        = 
| coordinates        = 
| coor_pinpoint      = 
| coordinates_footnotes = 
| subdivision_type   = Country
| subdivision_name   = {{SWE}}
| settlement_type    = [[Provinces of Sweden|Historical province]]
| subdivision_type1  = [[Lands of Sweden|Land]]
| subdivision_name1  = [[Norrland]]
| subdivision_type2  = County
| subdivision_name2  = [[Norrbotten County]]
| unit_pref          = Metric<!-- or US or UK -->
| area_footnotes     = 
| area_total_km2     = 
| area_land_km2      = 26,671
| area_water_km2     = 
| area_water_percent = 
| area_note          = 
| population_footnotes = <ref name="population">{{cite web |url=https://www.statistikdatabasen.scb.se/pxweb/sv/ssd/START__BE__BE0101__BE0101A/FolkmangdDistrikt/table/tableViewLayout1/ |title=Folkmängd 31 december; ålder |website=Statistikdatabasen |access-date=2 June 2024 }}</ref>
| population_total   = 195,267
| population_as_of   = 31 December 2023
| population_density_km2 = auto
| population_demonym = 
| population_note    = 
| timezone1          = [[Central European Time|CET]]
| utc_offset1        = +1
| timezone1_DST      = [[Central European Summer Time|CEST]]
| utc_offset1_DST    = +2
| postal_code_type   = [[List of postal codes in Sweden|Postal codes]]
| postal_code        = 
| area_code_type     = [[Telephone numbers in Sweden|Area codes]]
| area_code          = 
| demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
| demographics1_title1 = Language
| demographics1_info1 = [[Swedish language|Swedish]]
| demographics_type2 = Culture
| demographics2_title2 = Flower
| demographics2_info2 = [[Arctic raspberry]]
| demographics2_title3 = Animal
| demographics2_info3 = [[Siberian jay]]
| demographics2_title4 = Bird
| demographics2_info4 = —
| demographics2_title5 = Fish
| demographics2_info5 = [[Coregonus albula|Vendace]]
| website            = <!-- {{URL|example.com}} -->
| footnotes          = 
}}

'''Norrbotten''' ({{IPA|sv|ˈnɔ̂rːˌbɔtːɛn|lang}}), sometimes called '''North Bothnia''', is a [[Provinces of Sweden|Swedish province]] (''landskap'') in northernmost [[Sweden]]. It borders south to [[Västerbotten]], west to [[Lapland (Sweden)|Swedish Lapland]], and east to [[Finland]].

== Administration ==
The traditional [[provinces of Sweden]] serve no administrative or political purposes, but are historical and cultural entities. In this case, however, the county is older than the province. When the new national border to the [[Russia]]n [[Grand Duchy of Finland]] was established, the province of Västerbotten was divided, resulting in the formation of the Finnish municipalities of [[Kolari]], [[Muonio]], [[Pello]], [[Tornio]], and [[Ylitornio]]. However, Finnish Västerbotten is not widely recognized as a distinct historical province and is typically merged with [[Ostrobothnia (historical province)|Ostrobothnia]]—except for Muonio, which is considered part of [[Laponia (historical province of Finland)|Finnish Lapland]]. In Sweden, the northernmost [[Counties of Sweden|counties]] were created in 1810, comprising the northern regions of [[Lapland (Sweden)|Lapland]] and [[Västerbotten]]. Since then, northern Västerbotten has gradually developed a distinct provincial identity.

== Heraldry ==
Not being one of the old historical provinces of Sweden, Norrbotten had not been granted a coat of arms in the same way as the others. As recently as 1995, after decades of controversy, Norrbotten got its arms, and was thus recognized as a real province. The coat of arms refers to the [[Torne (Finnish and Swedish river)|Torne]], [[Kalix River|Kalix]], [[Lule River|Lule]] and [[Pite River|Pite]] rivers, which flow into the [[Gulf of Bothnia]].<ref>{{Cite web |last= |title=Norrbotten |url=https://sok.riksarkivet.se/en/heraldisktregister/?FritextSok=norrbotten&Kategori=Landskap&Namn=Norrbotten&IsSearch=True&page=1&postid=Heraldik_37&tab=post#tab |access-date=2025-04-26 |website=Riksarkivet - Heraldic register |language=sv}}</ref>

== History ==
{{unreferenced section|date=August 2018}}
During the [[Middle Ages]], the area was sparsely populated by [[Sami people]], who lived on hunting, fishing and [[reindeer]] herding. Although [[Swedish people]] have lived near the coast as early as 1335 as documented in the testament of Svenalde from [[Rutvik]]. From the Middle Ages and forward, the Swedish kings tried hard to colonise and Christianize the area. Settlers from the then eastern half of Sweden, [[Finland]]—the most important of which were known as [[Birkarls]]—controlled the trade and even the taxing on the area long into the 16th century.<ref>Vahtola, Jouko. ''Tornionlaakson historia I''. Birkarlit, 'pirkkalaiset'. Malungs boktryckeri AB. Malung, Sweden. 1991.</ref> From the mid-16th century, the area was more firmly tied to Sweden.{{clarify|is it meant the present day majority-swedish-speaking state in contrast to present-day-Finland, or to the Swedish state in contrast to not being state controlled at all? prev. phrasing of text suggest the latter|date=November 2022}} An important sign of Swedish control was the large [[Gammelstad Church Town|Nederluleå stone church]] from 1492. Still today, Finnish and Sami minorities live in Norrbotten and they have kept their culture and language.

Historically, [[Västerbotten]] was the denomination for northern Sweden, together with the [[Laponia (historical province)|Lappland]] areas. The ''Eastern Botten'' or [[Ostrobothnia (historical province)|Ostrobothnia]] was in the Finnish side.

Cultural identification in Sweden is closely related to the historical provinces, and the people in Norrbotten live in this sense in Northern [[Västerbotten]], or ''Norra Västerbotten''. In order not to be confused with people from Southern Västerbotten, i.e. the coastal region of [[Västerbotten County]], they started to identify themselves with the county rather than with the historical province.

Norrbotten had gradually become synonymous with the area that was previously referred to as northern Västerbotten. It started to evolve as a separate province. During the 20th century it got all of the symbols (animals, flowers etc.) which are assigned to the other provinces of Sweden. The coat of arms was granted in 1995.

==Climate==
Norrbotten has an inland climate with larger differences between summer and winter, sheltered from the ocean by the mountains. The weather is variable between days and sometimes cold air from the arctic cools down summer days, and ocean air can give temperature above freezing mid-winter. Norrbotten gets a thick snow cover in winter which melts away in April or May, which keeps temperatures down until then.

The summers can bring surprisingly warm temperatures for such northerly latitudes, and Norrbotten holds the all-time high temperature record for the entire Norrland at 37&nbsp;°C (98&nbsp;°F).{{cn|date=April 2025}}

The winters are usually very cold, and the Swedish cold temperature record is {{convert|-52.6|°C}} measured in [[Vuoggatjålme]] in southwest Norrbotten.

== Population ==
As of 31 December 2016, the population is 195,024,<ref name="population"/> distributed over 26,671&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>, which gives a density of 7.3 inhabitants/km<sup>2</sup>.

== Culture ==
Norrbotten has around 8,000 ancient remains. Languages spoken in the province include [[Swedish language|Swedish]] (including [[North Swedish]] regiolects), [[Meänkieli]], [[Finnish language|Finnish]], and [[Sami language|Sami]]. Some Meänkieli speakers have gradually been considering themselves part of the [[Kven people]], which supposedly arrived to the area much earlier than the Swedish settlers.

The Church Village of [[Gammelstad]] outside [[Luleå]] has been named a [[UNESCO]] [[World Heritage Site]] in 1996. Gammelstad revolves around a medieval church and has 404 smaller church cabins. The cabins were used as a resting place for people living too far away to travel back and forth the same day.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Om världsarvet Gammelstads kyrksby - Gammelstad |url=https://visitgammelstad.se/historia/omvarldsarvetgammelstadskyrkstad |access-date=2 June 2024 |website=Visitgammelstad |archive-date=1 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240601224707/https://visitgammelstad.se/historia/omvarldsarvetgammelstadskyrkstad |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== Sports ==
Football in the province (and Norrbotten County as a whole) is administered by [[Norrbottens Fotbollförbund]]. Ice hockey is also popular, with [[Luleå HF]], and basketball with the [[BC Luleå]] men's team and the [[Luleå BBK]] women's team.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Provinces of Sweden}}
{{Authority control}}
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[[Category:Norrbotten| ]]
[[Category:Provinces of Sweden]]