''Köping'' was a Swedish denomination for a

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

since the Middle Ages, derived from the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

word '' kaupang''. The designation was officially abolished with the municipal reform of 1971, when

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 subdivided into the

Municipalities of Sweden The municipalities of Sweden () are its generally smaller but co-equal local government Legal entity, entities. There are 290 municipalities which are responsible for a large proportion of local services, including schools, emergency services a ...

(currently amounting to 290). As present-day

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, ...

was once a part of Sweden, the Finnish word ''kauppala'' has the same meaning. In modern Finnish, the word ''kaupunki'', borrowed from the Old Norse word ''kaupang'', is the main word for town and city. Swedish ''köping'' and the English

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''wikt:toponym, 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 ...

''chipping'' are also

cognates In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the soun ...

as is the Norwegian word '' kjøpstad'' and the Danish toponymical suffix '' -købing''.

Sweden

History

In 1863 the first

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

acts were implemented in Sweden. There were two acts, one for cities and one for rural areas. Of the around 2,500 municipalities, 89 had city rights and thus had the right to call themselves ''stad'' (city). Under the "rural" act there were also eight localities given the status of ''köping'', which positioned them between a rural municipality and a town (see municipalköping). The number of localities designated as ''köping'' rose dramatically during the 20th century and reached its peak in 1959, when they were 95. Many new settlements during the industrialization of Sweden, as well as some of the suburbs in the metropolitan areas, first received the title of ''köping'' and it was also made part of their name (such as Linköping or Nyköping). They later grew further and received town privileges, but kept the ''köping'' ending of their names. See the list below. It has been found that a vast majority, nearly 70%, of such designated market-towns lie within an area of in south-central Sweden, especially in the highly economically productive region immediately west and south of Stockholm, in

Södermanland Södermanland ( ), locally Sörmland, sometimes referred to under its Latinisation of names, Latinized form Sudermannia or Sudermania, is a Provinces of Sweden, historical province (or ) on the south eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Österg� ...

Örebro Örebro ( ; ) is the seventh-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Örebro Municipality, and capital of Örebro County. It is situated by the Närke Plain, near the lake Hjälmaren, a few kilometers inland along the small river Svartån, and ...

, Östergötland, and

Jönköping Jönköping (, ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, city in southern Sweden with 112,766 inhabitants (2022). Jönköping is situated on the southern shore of Sweden's second largest lake, Vättern, in the province of Småland. The city is the seat o ...

counties. A large-scale merger of Swedish municipalities in 1971 removed the distinctions between towns, market towns and rural municipalities. Many of the former market towns are now seats of municipalities. In contrast to the term ''stad'', ''köping'' is seldom used in everyday speech today.

Toponyms containing the word ''köping''

Municipal Seats

* Linköping (104,232 inhabitants) *

(89,396) * Norrköping (87,247) * Nyköping (29,891) *

Lidköping Lidköping () is a locality and the seat of Lidköping Municipality in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had about 40,000 inhabitants in 2021. It is situated on the southern shore of Lake Vänern and sometimes refers to itself as "Lidkö ...

(25,644) *

Enköping Enköping is a locality and the seat of Enköping Municipality, Uppsala County, Sweden with 30,000 inhabitants in 2018. Geography Enköping is situated near Lake Mälaren, about 78 km west of Stockholm. A comparably large number of S ...

(21,121) * Köping (17,743) * Falköping (16,350) * Söderköping (6,992)

Minor Localities

* Malmköping (1,977) * Köpingsvik (599) * Äsköping (342)

Localities/Parishes in the Diocese of Lund

* Löddeköpinge (6,290) * Hököpinge (1,105) *Dalköpinge *Kyrkoköpinge *Sireköpinge *Stora Köpinge :sv:Stora Köpinge socken

Köping titles issued 1863–1959

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koping Koping Former administrative divisions of Sweden