Kramfors () is a locality and the seat of

Kramfors Municipality Kramfors Municipality (''Kramfors kommun'') is a municipality in Västernorrland County, northern Sweden. Its seat is located in the town Kramfors. The rural municipality of ''Gudmundrå'' was in 1947 made one of the last administrative cities of ...

in Västernorrland County,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. It had a population of 5,990 inhabitants in 2010. The town grew on the western bank of the Ångerman river in the 19th century as harvested logs were floated downriver to be processed at local sawmills and

pulp mill A pulp mill is a manufacturing facility that converts wood chips or other plant fiber sources into a thick fiber board which can be shipped to a paper mill for further processing. Pulp can be manufactured using mechanical, semi-chemical, or ful ...

s. Christopher Kramm introduced the river's first steam-driven saw, naming it after himself. The name of the town in turn derives from his name and the word ("

rapid Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade''. ...

"). In the 1960s and 1970s, as the timber industry went into decline, the population of Kramfors declined as well. The original settlement of Kramfors was located in Gudmundrå municipality, but in 1889 received the status of a so-called or borough, still remaining part of the original municipality. In 1947 it was awarded

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

status, one of the last in the country to do so. Since municipal reform in 1974, it serves as the seat of Kramfors Municipality. The municipality of Kramfors has about 20,000 inhabitants, and is situated almost in the middle of Sweden's east coast in Northern Sweden. Within 100 kilometres from Kramfors there is a population of about 250,000 people, and within 200 kilometres about half a million people, and the large Norrland towns of

Sundsvall Sundsvall () is a city and the seat of Sundsvall Municipality in Västernorrland County, Sweden. It has a population of 58,807 as of 2020; more than 95,000 live in the municipal area. It is Sweden's 21st largest city by population. History Th ...

and Umeå are within commuting distance. Kramfors is probably best known for its beautiful and varied

High Coast The High Coast ( sv, Höga Kusten) is a part of the coast of Sweden on the Gulf of Bothnia, in the Ångermanland province of northeast Sweden, centered in the area of the municipalities of Kramfors, Härnösand, Sollefteå and Örnsköldsvik. It i ...

landscape, which has been given World Heritage status, and which provides the inhabitants with the opportunity of an outdoors lifestyle. One of the tennis academies of Sweden is situated in Kramfors. Kramfors also hosts the Folke Bernadotte Academy, a government agency focused on improving international conflict and crisis management, with a special interest in peace operations. It offers courses in peacekeeping intelligence and information operations that are open to all nations and to non-governmental organizations.

Notable people

Sune Bergman Sune Bergman (5 December 1952 – 30 August 2021) was a Swedish ice hockey player and manager. As a coach he led HV71 HV71 (), often referred to as just HV, is a Swedish professional ice hockey club based in Jönköping, playing in the Swedis ...

(1952–2021), former professional ice hockey player. * Einar Blidberg (1906–1993), a

Swedish Navy The Swedish Navy ( sv, Svenska marinen) is the naval branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. It is composed of surface and submarine naval units – the Fleet () – as well as marine units, the Amphibious Corps (). In Swedish, vessels o ...

officer. * Erika Grahm (born 1991), former professional ice hockey player. *

Mario Kempe Mario Kempe (born 19 September 1988) is a Swedish professional ice hockey right winger who is currently an unrestricted free agent. He most recently played for HC Dinamo Minsk of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and played for the Arizona Coy ...

(born 1988), current KHL player for the HC Dinamo Minsk. * Adrian Kempe (born 1996), current

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

player for the Los Angeles Kings. * Sandra Näslund (born 1996), a

freestyle skier Freestyle skiing is a skiing discipline comprising aerials, moguls, cross, half-pipe, slopestyle and big air as part of the Winter Olympics. It can consist of a skier performing aerial flips and spins and can include skiers sliding rails and ...

. *

Mattias Norlinder Mattias Norlinder (born 12 April 2000) is a Swedish professional ice hockey defenceman for the Laval Rocket of the American Hockey League (AHL) while under contract to the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected i ...

(born 2000), current NHL player for the Montreal Canadiens. * Anna Olsson (born 1976),

Winter Olympic The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were hel ...

cross-country skier Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...

. * Gunnar Östberg (1923–2017), Winter Olympic cross-country skier. *

Tobias Viklund Tobias Viklund (born 8 May 1986) is a Swedish professional ice hockey defenceman, who is currently under contract with Modo Hockey of the HockeyAllsvenskan (Allsv). Playing career Viklund joined Russian club, Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg of the K ...

(born 1986), professional ice hockey player. *

Magnus Wernblom Magnus Wernblom (born February 3, 1973) is a Swedish former professional ice hockey forward who spent most of his active career playing for Modo Hockey in the Swedish Elitserien league, where he holds the franchise scoring record for most all-tim ...

(born 1973), former professional ice hockey player.

References

{{authority control Populated places in Kramfors Municipality Ångermanland Coastal cities and towns in Sweden Municipal seats of Västernorrland County Swedish municipal seats