Alavus ( sv, Alavo) is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Southern Ostrobothnia region, southeast of

Seinäjoki Seinäjoki (; "Wall River"; la, Wegelia, formerly sv, Östermyra) is a city located in South Ostrobothnia, Finland; east of Vaasa, north of Tampere, west of Jyväskylä and southwest of Oulu. Seinäjoki originated around the Östermyra bru ...

, north of Tampere and north of Helsinki. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . Neighbouring municipalities are Alajärvi, Kuortane, Seinäjoki, Virrat and Ähtäri. Agriculture and forestry employ a significant share of the population. Most of the industry in Alavus is related to construction: materials, design and contractors. Alavus has 60 lakes with of shoreline. The town is unilingually Finnish.

Geography

Villages

In 1967, Alavus had five legally recognized villages ''(henkikirjakylät)'': * Alavus * Rantatöysä * Sapsalampi *

Sulkava Sulkava is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the Southern Savonia region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . Neighbouring municipalities are Juva, Puumala, Ran ...

* Sydänmaa

Demographics

In 2020, 16.7% of the population of Alavus was under the age of 15, 54.6% were aged 15 to 64, and 28.7% were over the age of 64. The average age was 46.1, above the national average of 43.4 and regional average of 44.7. Speakers of Finnish made up 98.3% of the population and speakers of

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

made up 0.1%, while the share of speakers of foreign languages was 1.6%. Foreign nationals made up 1.2% of the total population. The chart below, describing the development of the total population of Alavus from 1975 to 2020, encompasses the municipality's area as of 2021.

Urban areas

In 2019, out of the total population of 6,919, 4,485 people lived in urban areas and 3,641 in sparsely populated areas, while the coordinates of 64 people were unknown. This made Alavus's degree of urbanization 60.7%. The urban population in the municipality was divided between three urban areas as follows:

Economy

In 2018, 9.1% of the workforce of Alavus worked in primary production ( agriculture, forestry and fishing), 24.0% in secondary production (e.g. manufacturing, construction and

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...

), and 65.6% in services. In 2019, the unemployment rate was 8.5%, and the share of pensioners in the population was 33.0%. (2018 and 2019) The ten largest employers in Alavus in 2019 were as follows:

Notable people

Erkki Huttunen Erkki Juhani Huttunen (18 May 1901 – 17 November 1956) was a Finnish architect known for his Functionalist works. He graduated from the Helsinki University of Technology in 1927. Selected works *SOK Toppila Mill, Oulu, 1929 *City Hall, Kotk ...

(1901–1956), architect *

Rauha S. Virtanen Rauha S. Virtanen (28 June 1931 – 20 March 2019) was a Finnish author who wrote youth literature as well as plays. Virtanen received numerous literary awards, including the Topelius Prize in 1971, the State Prize for Youth Literature in 1971, an ...

(1931-2019), author

References

External links

*
Town of Alavus
– Official website {{Authority control Cities and towns in Finland Populated places established in 1865