Upplands Väsby Municipality (''Upplands Väsby kommun'') is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Stockholm County Stockholm County ( sv, Stockholms län, link=no ) is a county or '' län'' (in Swedish) on the Baltic Sea coast of Sweden. It borders Uppsala County and Södermanland County. It also borders Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. The city of Stockholm ...

in east central

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 ...

, with a population of 38,963 (2010). Its seat is located in the town of

Upplands Väsby Upplands Väsby () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Upplands Väsby Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 149,463 inhabitants in 2020. History The municipality has a long history with clear traces of settlements from t ...

. The municipality was created in connection with the municipal reform of 1952, when the rural municipalities ''Ed'', ''Fresta'' and ''Hammarby'' were amalgamated. It got its name from a settlement which had evolved around the railway station. The name Väsby can be attested (as ''Vesby'') from the 13th century. The

prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the Word stem, stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy'' ...

"Upplands" came to be used by the post station in 1919 as a means of separating it from other Väsbys in the country. The municipality was then named "Upplands-Väsby" for a time, but the dash was removed on 19 September 2002.

Geography

Upplands Väsby is located in between

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

and

Arlanda Airport Stockholm Arlanda Airport is an international airport located in the Sigtuna Municipality of Sweden, near the town of Märsta, north of Stockholm and nearly south-east of Uppsala. The airport is located within Stockholm County and the pr ...

, and the East Coast Line railroad goes through the municipality. There are local train services to Arlanda Airport,

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

Stockholm Central Station Stockholm Central Station ( sv, Stockholms centralstation) is a railway station in Stockholm, Sweden. It is situated in the district of Norrmalm at Vasagatan/Central Plan. The station opened on 18 July 1871 and it had over 200,000 visitors dai ...

and

Älvsjö Älvsjö () is a district of the city of Stockholm Municipality in Sweden, located in the borough Älvsjö in Söderort. It has the biggest rentable facility in northern Europe called Stockholm International Fairs, and also the hotel Scandic Ta ...

(

Stockholm commuter rail Stockholm commuter rail ( sv, Stockholms pendeltåg) is the commuter rail system in Stockholm County, Sweden. The system is an important part of the public transport in Stockholm, and is controlled by Storstockholms Lokaltrafik. The tracks are ...

). The land is covered with good soil, forests, and

moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice shee ...

. The western part border to a creek of the lake

Mälaren Mälaren ( , , or ), historically referred to as Lake Malar in English, is the third-largest freshwater lake in Sweden (after Vänern and Vättern). Its area is 1,140 km2 and its greatest depth is 64 m. Mälaren spans 120 kilometers from e ...

(not visible on the map), which also marks the border to the municipality

Upplands-Bro Upplands-Bro Municipality (''Upplands-Bro kommun'') is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Kungsängen. The municipality was formed in 1952 through the amalgamation of five rural munici ...

. There are also other water areas, such as streams and small lakes, in the municipality. One of them is the small river Väsbyån, flowing through Väsby, in which the uncommon fish asp swims.

History

Located in the province of

Uppland Uppland () is a historical province or ' on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. On the small uninhab ...

the municipality holds remains from the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...

Runestone A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but most of the runestones da ...

s and axes from the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

have also been found. The number of rune inscriptions in the municipality amounts to 76. When Väsby Centrum, a shopping centre that currently houses some 60 stores, was built in Väsby in 1972 the population grew markedly. The mall is currently undergoing a large increase; 20 new stores will have opened by spring 2007, bringing the mall's total up to 80 stores.

Demography

Population development

Residents with a foreign background

On the 31st of December 2017 the number of people with a foreign background (persons born outside of Sweden or with two parents born outside of Sweden) was 17 533, or 39.31% of the population (44 605 on the 31st of December 2017). On the 31st of December 2002 the number of residents with a foreign background was (per the same definition) 10 132, or 27.06% of the population (37 444 on the 31st of December 2002).Antal personer efter region, utländsk/svensk bakgrund och år
(Read 5 januari 2019) On 31 December 2017 there were 44 605 residents in Upplands Väsby, of which 13 009 people (29.16%) were born in a country other than Sweden. Divided by country in the table below - the Nordic countries as well as the 12 most common countries of birth outside of Sweden for Swedish residents have been included, with other countries of birth bundled together by continent by

Statistics Sweden Statistics Sweden ( sv, Statistiska centralbyrån ; SCB) is the Swedish government agency operating under the Ministry of Finance and responsible for producing official statistics for decision-making, debate and research. The agency's responsib ...

.Statistiska centralbyrån: Utrikes födda efter län, kommun och födelseland 31 december 2017
(XLS-fil) Läst 5 januari 2019

References

External links

Upplands Väsby Municipality
- Official site
Väsby Centrum
(in

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 ...

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Upplands Vasby Municipality Municipalities of Stockholm County Metropolitan Stockholm