Socken is the name used for a part of a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

in Sweden. In Denmark similar areas are known as ''sogn'', in Norway ''sokn'' or ''sogn'' and in Finland ''pitäjä'' ''(socken)''. A socken is a country-side area that was formed around a church, typically in the Middle Ages. A socken originally served as a

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

Later Later may refer to: * Future, the time after the present Television * ''Later'' (talk show), a 1988–2001 American talk show * '' Later... with Jools Holland'', a British music programme since 1992 * ''The Life and Times of Eddie Roberts'', or ...

it also served as a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

or an

administrative parish A parish is an administrative division used by several countries. To distinguish it from an ''ecclesiastical parish'', the term '' civil parish'' is used in some jurisdictions, as noted below. The table below lists countries which use this admin ...

, and became a predecessor to today's

municipalities of Sweden The municipalities of Sweden ( sv, Sveriges kommuner) are its lower-level local government entities. There are 290 municipalities which are responsible for a large proportion of local services, including schools, emergency services and physical ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

and

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

. Today it is a traditional area with frozen borders, in Sweden typically identical to those of the early 20th century country-side parishes. The socken also served as a registration unit for buildings, in Sweden recently replaced by identical

districts A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...

as registration unit. A socken consists of several villages and industry localities (

company town A company town is a place where practically all stores and housing are owned by the one company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schools, markets and re ...

s), and is typically named after the main village and the original church.

Sweden

History

Socken, in

old Swedish Old Swedish (Modern Swedish: ) is the name for two distinct stages of the Swedish language that were spoken in the Middle Ages: Early Old Swedish (), spoken from about 1225 until about 1375, and Late Old Swedish (), spoken from about 1375 unti ...

''sokn'' (compare: Danish and

bokmål Bokmål () (, ; ) is an official written standard for the Norwegian language, alongside Nynorsk. Bokmål is the preferred written standard of Norwegian for 85% to 90% of the population in Norway. Unlike, for instance, the Italian language, there ...

''sogn'',

nynorsk Nynorsk () () is one of the two written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language ( no, Landsmål) parallel to the Dano-No ...

''sokn'') is an archaic name for the original country church parishes, ''kyrksocken''. It also describes a secular area, a ''sockenkommun'' ("rural area locality") or a taxation area, a ''jordbokssocken''. In the Nordic countries a socken was an administrative area consisting of several villages or localities in much the same way as the

civil parishes in England In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

, but the concept is not used in reference to towns. A socken had a socken church, it was governed by a socken council and it was the predecessor to modern

municipalities 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 ...

In 1862, the ''kyrksockens'' ("church socken") and the ''sockenkommuns'' ("rural area locality") in Sweden were abolished as administrative areas during municipality reforms. The ''jordbrukssocken'' ("taxation area") remained in use until the ''Fastighetsdatareformen'' ("Reform for registration of real property") 1976–1995 was complete. No further alterations to the sockens was made after this. On 1January 2016, a new administrative division and area for

statistics Statistics (from German: '' Statistik'', "description of a state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, indust ...

, registration districts or simply districts, was introduced in Sweden. Geographically, the districts correspond with the parishes of the Church of Sweden as of 31December 1999. About 85% of the old sockens corresponds with the new districts. Even though the term socken is no longer used administratively in Sweden, it is still used for cataloging and registering historical archives (

Swedish National Heritage Board The Swedish National Heritage Board ( sv, Riksantikvarieämbetet; RAÄ) is a Swedish government agency responsible for World Heritage Sites and other national heritage monuments and historical environments. It is governed by the Ministry of C ...

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is ...

research,

toponymy Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' ( proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

and by local historical societies. Socken is a convenient parameter for these purposes since it does not change with time.

Lists of sockens

* List of sockens in Sweden on Swedish Wikipedia, :sv:Kategori:Socknar i Sverige

References

External links

Swedish Tax Agency, Parishes in Sweden, historical–current.

Swedish National Heritage Board, List of towns and sockens.
{{Expand Swedish, Socken, date=June 2014 Types of populated places Scandinavian history Subdivisions of Sweden

Sweden

History

Lists of sockens

See also

References

Further reading

External links