Ruhnu Parish ( Estonian: ''Ruhnu vald'') 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 ...

Saare County Saare County ( et, Saare maakond or ''Saaremaa''; la, Oesel; german: Ösel; sv, Ösel) is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It consists of Saaremaa, the largest island of Estonia, and several smaller islands near it, most notably Muhu, Ruhnu, A ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

. It encompasses the island of Ruhnu in the Gulf of Riga, together with a number of uninhabited

islet An islet is a very small, often unnamed island. Most definitions are not precise, but some suggest that an islet has little or no vegetation and cannot support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/or hard coral; may be permanen ...

s. Its population is the smallest of any of Estonia's 79 municipalities, the parish being exempt from the usual minimum population size of 5000. There are 60 permanent inhabitants during winter time; in summer the number increases to 150. In 2015 the parish council approved Ado Tuuga's designs for the municipality's flag and coat of arms. Kuunsi päevamärk 2005

The parish has only one village, Ruhnu village, in the centre of the island. There is a school, museum, library, two shops, two churches, first-aid point and local marine rescue team. In the southern part of the island near Ringsu cape, there is a weather station, airfield, diesel electric power station, harbour and cultural centre. In 2018, a 150 kilowatt

solar power Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovolta ...

plant was completed near the airfield. Following the reconstruction of a wind turbine, renewables will account for more than half of the electricity produced on the island. Ruhnu rural municipality was formed on 19 December 1991. Of all the parishes in Estonia, it has one of the biggest percentages of young people under the age of 29, and the smallest percentage of people older than 65. The biggest employer is the

public sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, inf ...

, with tourism also increasing. Six families are active in

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

- beekeeping, cattle and sheep farming and arable crops such as

oats The oat (''Avena sativa''), sometimes called the common oat, is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed, which is known by the same name (usually in the plural, unlike other cereals and pseudocereals). While oats are suitable for human co ...

and

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...

. 60% of the land in Ruhnu Parish is currently in the ownership 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 ...

citizens, the descendants of the pre-war ethnic Swedish population. Ruhnu was part of Saaremaa district until 1950 when the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

authorities transferred it to Pärnu district. It was again assigned to Saaremaa in 1986. In 2016

Estonian Public Broadcasting Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also * ...

reported the possibility of Ruhnu Parish returning to the jurisdiction of Pärnu. In 2013 Ruhnu's parish council discussed a proposal to merge the island's administration with the City of Tallinn.

Photographs of Ruhnu Parish

Ruhnu, 2002. septembris - panoramio.jpg, File:Ruhnu motiivid, SALOON-COFFEE 11.jpg, File:Pastoraadi peahoone Ruhnul.JPG, File:Ruhnu Püha Magdaleena kirik 09.jpg,

References

{{Islands in the Baltic Sea Ruhnu Municipalities of Estonia