Sottunga
| coat of arms | map |
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| Basic data | |
| State : |
 Finland
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| Landscape : | Åland |
| Administrative community : | Åland archipelago |
| Geographical location | 60 ° 8 ′ N , 20 ° 40 ′ E |
| Surface: | 342.47 km² |
| of which land area: | 28.05 km² |
| of which inland waterways: | 0.02 km² |
| of which sea area: | 314.40 km² |
| Residents : | 91 (December 31, 2018) |
| Population density : | 3.2 inhabitants / km² |
| Municipality number : | 766 |
| Language (s) : | Swedish |
| Website : | www.sottunga.ax |
Sottunga is a municipality in the autonomous Finnish province ( Finnish : Lääni ) Åland .
With 91 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2018), Sottunga is the municipality in Finland with the smallest number of inhabitants. As in the rest of Åland, Swedish is the official language, 94 percent of the population are Swedish-speaking.
Sottunga is made up of many islands, only three of which are inhabited. Normally, Sottunga means the largest of the three islands. Despite its small size, the community has various service facilities: In the center there is a village shop, a bank and post office and a primary school. There is even a helicopter landing pad opposite the emergency station .
There is full employment in the community ; the unemployment rate was officially reported as 0 percent in January 2007.
In 2011, the municipality's financial situation deteriorated so much that it had to seek help from the Åland government. Before the election for the lagting in October 2011, it became known that the municipality would run out of money within two months, which in the worst case could lead to defaults on payments to employees and suppliers. The so-called "Sottunga crisis " was even compared with the Greek national debt crisis from 2010 onwards . The community has no debts; but because of its small size, the cost of care for four elderly people meant that spending doubled within a short period of time and now account for 30 to 40 percent of the community budget, while tax revenues fell. The government is now demanding a five-year plan for the community's finances.
Parish name
It is believed that the community name comes from the words sotig and tunga , which means something like "dirty language" and could refer to the island's peculiar variant of the Åland dialect .
traffic
Sottunga can be reached with the Ålandstrafik archipelago ferries , which operate all year round on the route from Långnäs ( Lumparland municipality ) to Kökar and on to Galtby ( Korpo municipality ).
Attractions
Sottunga's wooden church has been in its current location since 1661. The current church was built after the fire in 1728. It is the smallest wooden church in Finland.
Islands
The islands Finnö, Husö, Hästö, Mosshaga and Storsottunga belong to the municipality.
References
- ↑ Maanmittauslaitos (Finnish land surveying office): Suomen pinta-alat kunnittain January 1, 2010 (PDF file; 194 kB)
- ↑ Statistical Office Finland: Table 11ra - Key figures on population by region, 1990-2018
- ↑ kuntalehti.fi ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Dagens Nyheter, ”Grekiskt” would be hotar i åländska Sottunga (Swedish)
- ↑ Hufvudstadsbladet, Akut ekonomisk kris på Sottunga ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Swedish)
