Karlstad 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' ...

Värmland County Värmland County () is a county or '' län'' in west central Sweden. It borders the Swedish counties of Dalarna, Örebro and Västra Götaland, as well as the Norwegian counties of Østfold, Akershus and Innlandet to the west. The title of Duke ...

in west central

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

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

Karlstad Karlstad (, ) is the 20th-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Karlstad Municipality, the capital of Värmland County, and the largest city in the province Värmland in Sweden. The city proper had 67,122 inhabitants in 2020 with 97,233 inhabitan ...

. The present municipality was established in 1971 when the former City of Karlstad was amalgamated with a number of surrounding rural municipalities.

Localities

Alster The Alster () is a right tributary of the Elbe river in Northern Germany. It has its source near Henstedt-Ulzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, flows somewhat southwards through much of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and joins the Elbe in central ...

* Blombacka *

(seat) * Killstad *

Molkom Molkom () is a locality situated in Karlstad Municipality, Värmland County, 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 ...

Skattkärr Skattkärr is a locality situated in Karlstad Municipality, Värmland County, Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norwa ...

* Skåre *

Slängserud Slängserud is a locality in Nyeds parish in the Karlstad Municipality, Värmland County. Located next to North Lake Barsjön. Slängserud consisting of parts Slängserudsgård and Slängserudstorp. History In 1890, when The Swedish Census was ...

* Vallargärdet *

Väse Väse is a locality situated in Karlstad Municipality, Värmland County, 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 ...

Politics

Municipalities are responsible for government-mandated duties, and elections for the

Municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough cou ...

are held every four years, parallel to the

general elections A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...

. Until the 2010s inhabitants of Karlstad had a tendency to vote close to the national results at the general elections, making it the generally accepted

bellwether A bellwether is a leader or an indicator of trends.bellwether
" ''Cambridge Dictionary''. Re ...

town of Sweden. In

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

this had decisively changed, with the winning right coalition performing seven points better overall than it did in Karlstad, with the bellwether municipalities instead being previous Social Democrats-dominated post-industrial towns in

Bergslagen Bergslagen is a historical, cultural, and linguistic region located north of Lake Mälaren in northern Svealand, Sweden, traditionally known as a mining district. In Bergslagen, the mining and metallurgic industries have been important since t ...

a bit northeast of Karlstad.

Demographics

This is a demographic table based on Karlstad 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 95,290 residents, including 74,827 Swedish citizens of voting age. 52.5% voted for the left coalition and 46.4% for the right coalition. Indicators are in percentage points except population totals and income.

Elections

Riksdag

These are the local results of the Riksdag elections since the 1972 municipality reform. The results of the

Sweden Democrats The Sweden Democrats ( , SD ) is a Nationalism, nationalist and Right-wing populism, right-wing populist political party in Sweden founded in 1988. As of 2024, it is the largest member of Sweden's Right-wing politics, right-wing bloc and the sec ...

were not published by SCB between 1988 and 1998 at a municipal level to the party's small nationwide size at the time. "Votes" denotes valid votes, whereas "Turnout" denotes also blank and invalid votes. Blocs This lists the relative strength of the socialist and centre-right blocs since 1973, but parties not elected to the Riksdag are inserted as "other", including the Sweden Democrats results from 1988 to 2006, but also the Christian Democrats pre-1991 and the Greens in 1982, 1985 and 1991. The sources are identical to the table above. The coalition or government mandate marked in bold formed the government after the election. New Democracy got elected in 1991 but are still listed as "other" due to the short lifespan of the party. "Elected" is the total number of percentage points from the municipality that went to parties who were elected to the Riksdag.

Notable natives

Bengt Alsterlind Bengt may refer to: People In arts, entertainment and media Actors * Bengt Djurberg (1898–1941), Swedish actor and singer * Bengt Ekerot (1920–1971), Swedish actor and director * Bengt Eklund (1925–1998), Swedish actor * Bengt Logardt (1914 ...

, TV host ("Hajk") *

Zarah Leander Zarah Leander (; 15 March 1907 – 23 June 1981) was a Sweden, Swedish singer and actress whose greatest success was in Germany between 1936 and 1943, when she was contracted to work for the state-owned UFA GmbH, Universum Film AG (UFA). Althou ...

, singer * Sven-Erik Magnusson, singer/ dance band artist (

Sven-Ingvars Sven-Ingvars is a Swedish pop music, pop/rock music, rock group from Slottsbron, Sweden. The band was formed in 1956 by Sven Svärd (drums), Ingvar Karlsson (guitar and accordion), Sven-Erik Magnusson (vocals, guitar, and clarinet). Later the b ...

) *

Christer Sjögren Hans Christer Sjögren (; born 6 April 1950) is a Swedish singer, songwriter and musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist of the dansband group Vikingarna (band), Vikingarna. Early life Hans Christer Sjögren was born in Hagfors, Swed ...

, rock/

dansband (; "dance band"), or in Norwegian and Danish, is a Swedish language, Swedish term for a band that plays (; "dance band music"). ' is often danced to in partner dance, pairs. Jitterbug and foxtrot music are often included in this category. T ...

singer ( Vikingarna) *

Ulf Sterner Ulf Ivar Erik Sterner (born 11 February 1941) is a Swedish former professional ice hockey forward. He played in nine IIHF World Championships for Sweden, where the team won seven medals: one gold, five silver, and one bronze. He was also a membe ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player (first Swede to play in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

) * Fabian Zetterlund, ice hockey forward for the

San Jose Sharks The San Jose Sharks are a professional ice hockey team based in San Jose, California. The Sharks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Con ...

* Elgen Helge, local hero (Most handsome

moose The moose (: 'moose'; used in North America) or elk (: 'elk' or 'elks'; used in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is the world's tallest, largest and heaviest extant species of deer and the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is also the tal ...

around)

Sites of interest

*Alsters herrgård, the

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

where

Gustaf Fröding Gustaf Fröding (; 22 August 1860 – 8 February 1911) was a Swedish poet and writer from Alster, Värmland. The family moved to Kristinehamn in the year 1867. He later studied at Uppsala University and worked as a journalist in Karlstad.

was born * Karlstad Church, built in 1730 *An indoor ice rink and event arena,

Löfbergs Arena Löfbergs Arena is an arena located in Karlstad, Sweden, situated just above the river delta of Klarälven. It is primarily used for ice hockey, and is the home arena of Färjestad BK. It opened in 2001 following a complete overhaul and major e ...

, expanded in 2002 to host the

Ice Hockey World Championships The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual international men's ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), first officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics. The IIHF was created in 1908 while the I ...

* * Sweden's only indoor speed skating arena, Tingvalla isstadion. It is constructed in a world unique way. While normally it consists of a

bandy field A bandy field or bandy rink is a large ice rink used for playing the team winter sport of bandy. Being about the size of a football pitch, it is substantially larger than an ice hockey rink. History Originally, bandy was played on naturally froz ...

and two ice hockey rink

on occasion the boards are dismantled in order to make room for the speed skating oval. *

Botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...

s *The

masonic Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

lodge where the negotiations for the dissolution of the union between

and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

were held in 1905 *A

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 ...

Vr 2, one of four known in Värmland *A history museum *A nature museum

International relations

Twin towns – sister cities

The municipality is twinned with: *

Blönduós Blönduós () is a town and former municipality in the north of Iceland with a population of 895 in 2018. Like many towns and villages around Iceland, Blönduós did not emerge as a village until the late 19th century. The town is situated on Rou ...

, Iceland *

Gaziantep Gaziantep, historically Aintab and still informally called Antep, is a major city in south-central Turkey. It is the capital of the Gaziantep Province, in the westernmost part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region and partially in the Medi ...

, Turkey *

Horsens Horsens () is a city on the east coast of the Jutland region of Denmark. It is the seat of the Horsens municipality. The city's population is 64,418 (1 January 2025) and the municipality's population is 97,921 (), making it the List of cities and ...

, Denmark *

Jõgeva Jõgeva is a small town in Estonia with a population of around 5000 people. It is the capital of Jõgeva Parish and Jõgeva County. History Jõgeva was first mentioned in 1599 as ''Jagiwa'' manor, being established only recently on the lands ...

, Estonia *

Moss Mosses are small, non-vascular plant, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic phylum, division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryo ...

, Norway *

Nokia Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...

, Finland

References

External links

Karlstad Municipality
– Official site
Karlstad University
{{authority control Municipalities of Värmland County iu:ᑲᕐᓪᔅᑕᑦ