Boden Municipality (Swedish: Bodens kommun) is a municipality in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden. Its seat is located in Boden. In 1919 the evolving garrison town of Boden was detached from Överluleå and instituted as a city municipality of its own. In 1967 the rest of Överluleå was merged into the city together with a part of Råneå. In 1971 Edefors (which in 1892 also had been detached from Överluleå) was added and the present municipality was formed.

History

According to recent finds, the oldest human settlements are believed to be from around 5,000 BC. From this early time nothing is known (except some scarce finds). First accounted-for sources are from the 16th century, when Boden is referred to as Bodebyn or Bodarna, which may refer to the sheds (bod means "shed"). In 1543 there were seven farmers in the community (each farmer at that time might have several workers and a family). It was also mentioned that native Sami people were living in the proximity.

Geography

The closest larger city is Luleå, which is located some 35 km southeast on the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia. Luleå is the largest city in Norrbotten County and hosts the main campus of Luleå University of Technology. The main northern railway line, Stambanan genom övre Norrland, ends in Boden. By rail, Boden is connected to Luleå, and, on the same line, Uppsala, Stockholm, and finally Bräcke in the south.

Localities

There were six localities in the municipality as of 2018:

Demographics

This is a demographic table based on Boden Municipality's electoral districts in the 2022 Swedish general election sourced from SVT's election platform, in turn taken from SCB official statistics. In total there were 28,135 residents, including 22,002 Swedish citizens of voting age. 54.7% voted for the left coalition and 44.2% for the right coalition. Indicators are in percentage points except population totals and income.

Language

In Boden Municipality, as in all of Sweden, there is no "official" language, but Swedish is by far the mostly used one. Some people are also, due to the proximity to the Finnish border, proficient in Finnish, and a few speak Sami. Nowadays, due to immigration, a lot of languages from around the world can also be heard.

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

Boden Municipality is twinned with: All of these are northerly located, only Oulu being on a more southern latitude than Boden.

Notable natives

Politics

Following 2018 elections the municipal council is dominated by the Social Democrats despite their losing two seats compared to the previous elections. Two regional parties, Aktiv samling – Bodenalternativet and Health Care Party of Norrbotten, performed well, gaining 10 seats between them in the 49-member council. The head of executive is Social Democrat Claes Nordmark.