Kokkola (; , ) is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

and the regional capital of

Central Ostrobothnia Central Ostrobothnia (; ) is a Regions of Finland, region in Finland. Central Ostrobothnia borders the Bothnian Bay and the regions of Ostrobothnia (administrative region), Ostrobothnia, North Ostrobothnia, Central Finland and South Ostrobothnia ...

. It is located on the west coast of the country, on the

Gulf of Bothnia The Gulf of Bothnia (; ; ) is divided into the Bothnian Bay and the Bothnian Sea, and it is the northernmost arm of the Baltic Sea, between Finland's west coast ( East Bothnia) and the northern part of Sweden's east coast ( West Bothnia an ...

. The population of Kokkola is approximately , while the

sub-region A subregion is a part of a larger geographical region or continent. Cardinal directions are commonly used to define subregions. There are many criteria for creating systems of subregions; this article is focusing on the United Nations geoscheme ...

has a population of approximately . It is the most populous

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' ...

in Finland, and the 20th most populous

urban area An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbani ...

in the country. Kokkola covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . Neighbour municipalities are

Halsua Halsua () is a municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. Halsua is located in the provinces of Finland, province of Western Finland and is part of the Central Ostrobothnia regions of Finland, region. The municipality has a population o ...

, Kalajoki,

Kannus Kannus is a town and municipality of Finland. It is situated in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Central Ostrobothnia region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of , of which is water. The populatio ...

Kaustinen Kaustinen () is a municipality of Finland. It is part of the Central Ostrobothnia region. The municipality has a population about 4300 and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . Neighbouring municipalities are Halsua, ...

Kronoby Kronoby (, ) is a municipality in Finland, located on the west coast of the country. Kronoby is situated in Ostrobothnia (administrative region), Ostrobothnia, along the Gulf of Bothnia. The population of Kronoby is approximately , while the Jakobs ...

, Lestijärvi,

Larsmo Larsmo (, ) is a municipality in Finland, located on the west coast of the country. Larsmo is situated in Ostrobothnia, along the Gulf of Bothnia. The population of Larsmo is approximately , while the sub-region has a population of approximat ...

and Toholampi. Kokkola is a

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

municipality with Finnish and Swedish as its official languages. The population consists of Finnish speakers, Swedish speakers, and speakers of other languages.

Etymology

Name

In the oldest Swedish sources Kokkola is mentioned as ''Karlabi''. The town was known in Swedish by the name until 1 January 1977 when the surrounding land municipality of Kaarlela () was consolidated with Kokkola, and the town took over the Swedish name of . The word means "old", ''karl'' (anglicanized Charles), is a Germanic males name, a name of many kings, meaning simply "man" and ''by'' means "village", so the town name is ambiguous meaning both "old village of Charles" or "old man village". The Latin name was ''Carolina Vetus''.

Gustav II Adolf Gustavus Adolphus (9 December N.S 19 December">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Old Style and New Style dates">N.S 19 December15946 November Old Style and New Style dates">N.S 16 November] 1632), also known in English as ...

, the founder of the city, possibly named the town in honor of his father King Karl IX of Sweden. The Finnish name is possibly derived from Kokkolahti, a narrow bay located at the place of the town. According to a tale the sea eagles (in Finnish merikotka or kokko) used to live there. Another theory claims that the name comes from ancient signal fires (kokko), which were used to warn people about approaching enemy troops.

Heraldry

The

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

of Kokkola is based on the city seal issued in 1620 in connection with the founding of the city. The pattern is a symbol of tar burning and tar trade, which have played a significant part in the history of the city since its founding until the 19th century. The coat of arms was designed by Olof Eriksson and Into I. Suominen, and it was confirmed for use on 17 December 1956.

History

The town of Kokkola was chartered in 1620 by King

of Sweden when Finland was a part of the

Swedish Empire The Swedish Empire or the Great Power era () was the period in Swedish history spanning much of the 17th and early 18th centuries during which Sweden became a European great power that exercised territorial control over much of the Baltic regi ...

and is one among the oldest towns in Finland. The king also decided that a tar barrel, with three burning flames coming from both the ends and the plug, should be used as the town seal, because of the tar trade at that time, for which Kokkola was founded as a shipping port. Anders Chydenius (1729-1803) who was one of the leading politicians of

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 ...

, was a keen supporter of economic freedom and fought in the Swedish Parliament for free foreign trade and further social reforms. In 1765 the Swedish Parliament granted the city of Kokkola the staple rights. Kokkola also became an important

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other Watercraft, floating vessels. In modern times, it normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation th ...

centre in Finland. As a result of tar trade and shipbuilding industry, Kokkola was for a time one of the richest towns in Finland. Swertschkoff Kankkonen

An interesting historical affair, known as the Skirmish of Halkokari, occurred at the town on 7 June 1854 during the Åland War, part of the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

Royal Marines The Royal Marines provide the United Kingdom's amphibious warfare, amphibious special operations capable commando force, one of the :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, five fighting arms of the Royal Navy, a Company (military unit), company str ...

from HMS Vulture and HMS Odin tried to come ashore to deal with public property in the town "in accordance with the usages of war". The marines were repelled by local defenders armed with hunting rifles supported by troops, artillery and possibly Russian advisors and military. One of the 9 smaller British craft (a

gunboat A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-steam ...

) fell into the hands of the defenders. As such, this boat was the only Royal Navy vessel still in foreign possession in 1914. The boat is still today a museum-object and can be seen in Kokkola's English Park. The town council has refused to return the boat despite several requests by the United Kingdom, most recently by

John Stuttard Sir John Boothman Stuttard KStJ JP FCA (born 6 February 1945) is an English chartered accountant who was Lord Mayor of the City of London from 2006 to 2007. Early life Stuttard was born in Burnley, Lancashire, and educated at Shrewsbury S ...

, the Lord Mayor of London. The British Treasury annually pays a small sum to the local church congregation for the maintenance of the graves of nine Royal Marines killed in action during the skirmish . Interesting contemporaneous accounts of the disastrous action can be found in the British Newspaper Archive, citing Gamla Carleby. The city had a Swedish-speaking majority until 1933. In 1977, the surrounding municipality of Kaarlela () was consolidated into Kokkola (Swedish until then: ). In 2009, the municipalities of Lohtaja,

Kälviä Kälviä () is a former municipality of Finland. Kälviä was consolidated with the city of Kokkola on 1 January 2009. It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Central Ostrobothnia region. The former municipality ...

and Ullava were consolidated with Kokkola.

Geography

Kokkola is the capital of the

region, it is located on the coast of

, the northernmost part of the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

. The next larger cities are

Vaasa Vaasa (; , ), formerly (1855-1917) known as Nikolaistad (; ),Oulu Oulu ( , ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Ostrobothnia. It is located on the northwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Oulujoki, River Oulu. The population of Oulu is approximately , while the Oulu sub-regio ...

is northeast. The distance to the capital Helsinki is to the south. Neighbouring cities and municipals are Kalajoki in the northern east,

and Toholampi in the east,

and

in the southern east,

in the south and

in the southern west. The landscape of the region around Kokkola is flat, typical for the area of Ostrobothnia, with numerous river courses flowing through the land. The biggest river in the area is Perhonjoki, which flows into

, north of Kokkola. The annual

post-glacial rebound Post-glacial rebound (also called isostatic rebound or crustal rebound) is the rise of land masses after the removal of the huge weight of ice sheets during the last glacial period, which had caused isostatic depression. Post-glacial rebound an ...

at Kokkola is 8.8 mm. Thus large areas of present-day Kokkola were under water when the town was founded.

Climate

Demographics

Population

The city of Kokkola has inhabitants, making it the most populous municipality in Finland. The Kokkola region has a population of .

Languages

The city of Kokkola is officially

, with both Finnish and Swedish as official languages. , the majority of the population, persons (), spoke Finnish as their first language. The number of Swedish speakers was persons () of the population. Foreign languages were spoken by of the population. As English and Swedish - or Finnish for Swedish speakers - are compulsory school subjects, functional bilingualism or trilingualism acquired through language studies is not uncommon. Kokkola marks the northernmost settlement area of the Swedish-speakers (Fenno-Swedish) on the western coast of Finland. The Swedish-speaking inhabitants of Kokkola are spread unevenly around Kokkola: Whereas the centre of the city is bilingual, the majority of the villages around Kokkola mostly speak Swedish. The districts which were consolidated in 2009 are, however, pure Finnish-speaking areas. At least 30 different languages are spoken in Kokkola. The most common foreign languages are

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

(0.7%), Ukrainian (0.6%), English (0.4%) and

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

(0.4%).

Immigration

, there were 2,485 persons with a foreign background living in Kokkola, or 6% of the population. The number of residents who were born abroad was 3,009, or 6% of the population. The number of persons with foreign citizenship living in Kokkola was 1,982. Most foreign-born citizens came from

, the former

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

and

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

. The relative share of immigrants in Kokkola's population is below the national average. However, the city's new residents are increasingly of foreign origin. This will increase the proportion of foreign residents in the coming years.

Religion

In 2023, the Evangelical Lutheran Church was the largest religious group with 72.5% of the population of Kokkola. Other religious groups accounted for 2.1% of the population. 25.4% of the population had no religious affiliation.

Economy

Kokkola is the capital and biggest city in the region of

. The

chemical industry The chemical industry comprises the companies and other organizations that develop and produce industrial, specialty and other chemicals. Central to the modern world economy, the chemical industry converts raw materials ( oil, natural gas, air, ...

is a major employer. An industrial area and the city's port are located in Ykspihlaja. Umicore has a

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. ...

plant. The Freeport/Umicore refinery is the only large cobalt refinery outside China. Boliden has a

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

plant.

Kemira Kemira Oyj () is a chemical industry group headquartered in Helsinki, Finland. The company was established in 1920 and has developed into a global leader in its two main segments, Industry&Water and Pulp&Paper. Full history including a history v ...

, a chemical conglomerate, built an industrial park that is now divided among several corporations. In addition, industries represented in the town include metalworking, casting, textiles, plastics, food and carpentry. Largest employers are as follows (2011): * The city of Kokkola approx. 2.350 * Central Ostrobothnian Joint Municipal Authority for Social and Health Services (Soite) 2.500 * Boliden Kokkola Oy (zinc) 500 * Umicore (was Freeport Cobalt Oy until 2019) (cobalt) 420 * KPO group (retail) 400 * Halpa-Halli (retail) 300 * CABB Oy (fine chemicals) 200 The Port of Kokkola is located in Ykspihlaja, approximately from the city center, and it is one of the busiest ports in Finland. Oil, ore and limestone are imported, refined products and timber are exported, and iron ore is transited. The Chydenia Shopping Center, completed in 2006, is located in the center of Kokkola; about 2 million people visit at the shopping center every year.Kauppakeskukset
– Kauppakeskusyhdistys ry (in Finnish)

Transport

Kokkola is located on the coast of

, and the coastal European route E8 (Finnish highway 8) goes through, connecting

Oulu Oulu ( , ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Ostrobothnia. It is located on the northwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Oulujoki, River Oulu. The population of Oulu is approximately , while the Oulu sub-regio ...

and

Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...

via

Vaasa Vaasa (; , ), formerly (1855-1917) known as Nikolaistad (; ),Kajaani Kajaani (; ), is a town in Finland and the regional capital of Kainuu. Kajaani is located southeast of Oulujärvi, Lake Oulu, which drains into the Gulf of Bothnia through the Oulujoki, Oulu River. The population of Kajaani is approximately , w ...

. Finnish highway 13 begins from Kokkola and runs through Finland into the

Nuijamaa Nuijamaa (; literally translated the " club land") is a former municipality in the province of South Karelia in Finland. The municipality had inhabitants and an area of 136 km² in 1988. Nuijamaa was a Finnish-speaking municipality. Nuijam ...

border to

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

crossing via

Jyväskylä Jyväskylä () is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Central Finland. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Jyväskylä is approximately , while the Jyväskylä sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately ...

and

Mikkeli Mikkeli (; ; ; ) is a List of cities and towns in Finland, city in, and the regional capital of, South Savo, Finland, located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population is approximately , while the Mikkeli sub-region of Southern Savonia has a populat ...

. The scenic '7 Bridges Archipelago Road' (road 749) runs along the coast between Kokkola and

Jakobstad Jakobstad (; , ) is a town in Finland, located on the west coast of the country. Jakobstad is situated in Ostrobothnia (administrative region), Ostrobothnia, along the Gulf of Bothnia. The population of Jakobstad is approximately , while the Jako ...

().

Kokkola-Pietarsaari Airport Kokkola-Pietarsaari Airport (, ; ) is located in Kronoby, Finland, about south of Kokkola city centre and north-east of Jakobstad city centre. Overview The airport opened to traffic in 1960, when Aero began operating a route between Helsinki a ...

is situated from Kokkola in

. The Kokkola railway station is a stop along the Seinäjoki–Oulu railway, with service between Helsinki and Kemijärvi via

Tampere Tampere is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Tampere is approximately , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately . It is the most populous mu ...

and

Seinäjoki Seinäjoki (; "Wall River"; , formerly ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of South Ostrobothnia. Seinäjoki is located in the western interior of the country and along the Seinäjoki (river), River Seinäjoki. The population of Sein ...

, where the fast

Pendolino Pendolino (from Italian language, Italian "pendulum", and ''-ino,'' a diminutive suffix) is an Italian family of high-speed tilting trains (and non-tilting) used in Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, the Czech Republic, ...

bullet train operates. There is no passenger ferry traffic from Kokkola.

Politics

Results of the

2021 Finnish municipal elections Municipal elections were held in Finland on 13 June 2021 after being rescheduled from 18 April due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Context The last municipal elections were held in 2017 and were won by the National Coalition Party with a 20.7 percen ...

in Kokkola:

Culture and sights

The city is the home of the world-renowned Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, which was founded by the conductor Juha Kangas in 1972.

Buildings

The area of old wooden houses in the downtown area of Neristan has been the setting for the life and livelihood of its inhabitants for hundreds of years. Today these houses are offering restaurants, cafés, little shops and even accommodation for tourists. With its old charm it invites visitors to discover Neristan step by step. Tankar island, a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

island, is in the outer

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

, about northwest from Kokkola. The

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

houses a

which is still in use today, a museum of seal-hunting, a bird-watching tower, a lot of nature trails and even accommodations for tourists. It is easy to reach the island by ferry m/s Jenny from Kokkola. The stone Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Kaarlela has been a landmark since 1550 and is a popular venue for weddings and concerts. Next to the church, there is a local history museum at Kirkonmäki with an Ostrobothnian farmhouse, as well as an old smithy, a tannery, a wool-carding workshop, a threshing barn, a smoke sauna, a granary barn and a loft. K.H.Renlund Museum is devoted to Karl Herman Renlund, who donated his large art collection to the town of Kokkola. The museum houses some temporary exhibitions and the museum shop. Next to the museum is the Pedagogio, a school-house, which is Finland's oldest urban secular wooden building (built in 1696). In this quarter, there is also the Lassander House which offers a glimpse into a merchant home in the 18th century.

Sport

During the winter time, Kokkola offers 20 skiing tracks with a total length of . Kokkola is the home of the

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 ...

club

Hermes Hermes (; ) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology considered the herald of the gods. He is also widely considered the protector of human heralds, travelers, thieves, merchants, and orators. He is able to move quic ...

, which plays in the second highest Finnish league ( mestis). Moreover, there are the soccer clubs Kokkolan Palloveikot (KPV), which plays in the second highest Finnish league (

Ykkönen ''Ykkönen'' (Finnish language, Finnish for 'Number One'; , previously I divisioona) is the third highest level of the Finnish football league system (after the Veikkausliiga and Ykkösliiga), managed by the Football Association of Finland. Until ...

) and Gamlakarleby Bollklubb (GBK), which plays in the third highest Finnish league (

Kakkonen Kakkonen or II divisioona is the fourth level in the league system of Finnish football and comprises 36 Finnish football teams. Until the end of 2023, ''Kakkonen'' was the third-highest level in Finland, but after the creation of new second-t ...

). Kokkola's volleyball team Kokkolan Tiikerit is active in the highest Finnish volleyball league and current Finnish champions for men ( Lentopallon Mestaruusliiga). Sailing clubs include Gamlakarleby Segelförening, Kokkolan Purjehtijat and Kokkolan venekerho. There is also an american football team Karleby Goats, which plays in the third highest Finnish american football league ( Amerikkalaisen jalkapallon II-divisioona).

Education

Kokkola has a lot of

preschool A preschool (sometimes spelled as pre school or pre-school), also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, play school, is an school, educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they ...

s, some of them offer children a bilingual education from an early age (mostly Finnish-English or Finnish-Swedish). There are 25 Finnish-speaking and 8 Swedish-speaking schools. Moreover, there are three secondary schools for Finnish-speaking pupils and one for Swedish-speaking. Some schools offer a dual

vocational education Vocational education is education that prepares people for a skilled craft. Vocational education can also be seen as that type of education given to an individual to prepare that individual to be gainfully employed or self employed with req ...

and training. The Chydenius-Institution of Kokkola, a

university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

consortium A consortium () is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations, or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a ...

, carries out teaching and research under the auspices of the universities of Jyväskylä, Oulu and Vaasa. It is specialized in adult education. For Finnish and foreign students it arranges open university studies, further education for professionals in the fields of

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

social services Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. Also available amachine-converted HTML They may be provided by individuals, private and i ...

and health services and

management Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...

. Centria University of Applied Sciences innish name: ''Centria ammattikorkeakoulu''is also situated in Kokkola having its other partition in Ylivieska and Jakobstad is an international institute offering three different bachelor's degree program in English language along with Finnish.

Notable people

* Anders Chydenius (1729–1803), Lutheran priest and member of the Swedish

Riksdag The Riksdag ( , ; also or , ) is the parliament and the parliamentary sovereignty, supreme decision-making body of the Kingdom of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral parliament with 349 members (), elected proportional rep ...

* Otto Donner (1835–1909), linguist, professor and politician * Juho Kuosmanen (born 1979), film director and screenwriter * Joonas Sammalmaa (born 1991), professional ice hockey player

International relations

Twin towns – Sister cities

Kokkola is twinned with 15 cities: *

Härnösand Härnösand () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Härnösand Municipality in Västernorrland County, Sweden with 25,012 inhabitants in 2023. It is called "the gate to the High Coast" because of the world heritage landscape just ...

, Sweden * Mörbylånga, Sweden * Ullånger, Sweden * Averøy, Norway *

Kristiansund Kristiansund (, ; historically spelled Christianssund and earlier named Fosna) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality on the western coast of Norway in the Nordmøre district of Møre og Romsdal counties of Norway, county. The admin ...

, Norway *

Fredericia Fredericia () is a town located in Fredericia Municipality in the southeastern part of the Jutland peninsula in Denmark. The city is part of the Triangle Region Denmark, Triangle Region, which includes the neighbouring cities of Kolding and Vej ...

, Denmark * Ambla, Estonia * Järva-Jaani, Estonia * Marijampolė, Lithuania * Boldog, Hungary * Hatvan, Hungary *

Ratingen Ratingen (; ) is a town in the district of Mettmann in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It lies in the northwestern part of Berg about 12 km northeast of Düsseldorf. Administration With a communal reform of 1975 the independent municipalit ...

, Germany * Fitchburg, United States *

Greater Sudbury Sudbury, officially the City of Greater Sudbury, is the largest city in Northern Ontario by population, with a population of 166,004 at the 2021 Canadian Census. By land area, it is the largest in Ontario and the List of the largest cities and t ...

, Canada *

Fushun Fushun ( zh, s=, t=, p=Fǔshùn, historically Fuxi ()) is a prefecture level city in Liaoning province, China, about east of Shenyang, with a total area of , of which is the city proper. Situated on the Hun River ("muddy river"), it is one o ...

, China

Notes

References

External links

*
Official City of Kokkola website

Port of Kokkola
{{authority control Cities and towns in Finland Populated coastal places in Finland Grand Duchy of Finland Populated places established in 1620 1620 establishments in Sweden Municipalities of Central Ostrobothnia