Grästorp Municipality () is a

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

Västra Götaland County Västra Götaland County () is a county or '' län'' on the western coast of Sweden. The county is the second most populous of Sweden's counties and it comprises 49 municipalities (''kommuner''). Its population of 1,616,000 amounts to 17% of S ...

in western

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. Its seat is located in the town of

Grästorp Grästorp is a locality and the seat of Grästorp Municipality in Västra Götaland County, Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It ...

. Grästorp Municipality is located right in the middle of Västra Götaland County, by the shores of

Lake Vänern A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from t ...

History

In the year 1900 the village

was detached from Tengene and made a market town (''

köping ''Köping'' was a Swedish denomination for a market town since the Middle Ages, derived from the Old Norse word '' kaupang''. The designation was officially abolished with the municipal reform of 1971, when Sweden was subdivided into the Munic ...

''). The local government reform of 1952 amalgamated it with twelve surrounding municipalities (among them Tengene). The 1971 reform made the term ''köping'' obsolete, thus forming Grästorps kommun without amendment of territory. The area has been inhabited at least since the

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

as it contains several

runestone A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic alphabet, runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition of erecting runestones as a memorial to dead men began in the 4th centur ...

s. The runestone at the church at Sal has an inscription that reads "''Torgård satte denna sten efter Toke, sin frände''", meaning "Torgård raised this stone for Toke, his kinsman".

Localities

The seat

(pop. 3,000) is the only built-up

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality, a historical named location or place in Canada * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localitie ...

with more than 200 inhabitants in this predominantly rural area.

Demographics

This is a demographic table based on Grästorp Municipality's electoral districts in the

2022 Swedish general election General elections were held in Sweden on 11 September 2022 to elect the 349 members of the Riksdag who in turn elected the Prime Minister of Sweden. Under the constitution, regional and municipal elections were also held on the same day. The pr ...

sourced from SVT's election platform, in turn taken from SCB official statistics. In total there were 5,727 residents, including 4,530 Swedish citizens of voting age. 39.2% voted for the left coalition and 59.5% for the right coalition. Indicators are in percentage points except population totals and income.

References

External links

Grästorp Municipality
- Official site {{DEFAULTSORT:Grastorp Municipality Municipalities of Västra Götaland County