Alavus
Template:Expand Finnish Template:Infobox settlement Alavus (Template:Langx) is a town and municipality of Finland in the province of Western Finland. Part of the Southern Ostrobothnia region, it is located Template:Convert southeast of Seinäjoki, Template:Convert north of Tampere and Template:Convert north of Helsinki. The town has a population of Template:Data Finland municipality/population count ({{#time: j F Y|Template:Data Finland municipality/population count }})<ref name="population_count" /> and covers an area of Template:Convert of which Template:Convert is water.<ref name="total_area" /> The population density is Template:Convert. Neighbouring municipalities are Alajärvi, Kuortane, Seinäjoki, Virrat and Ähtäri.
Agriculture and forestry employ a significant share of the population. Most of the industry in Alavus is related to construction: materials, design and contractors. Alavus has 60 lakes with Template:Convert of shoreline. The town is unilingually Finnish.
Geography
Villages
In 1967, Alavus had five legally recognized villages (henkikirjakylät):<ref name="suomenmaa">Template:Cite book</ref>
- Alavus
- Rantatöysä
- Sapsalampi
- Sulkava
- Sydänmaa
Demographics
In 2020, 16.7% of the population of Alavus was under the age of 15, 54.6% were aged 15 to 64, and 28.7% were over the age of 64. The average age was 46.1, above the national average of 43.4 and regional average of 44.7. Speakers of Finnish made up 98.3% of the population and speakers of Swedish made up 0.1%, while the share of speakers of foreign languages was 1.6%. Foreign nationals made up 1.2% of the total population.<ref name="population key figures">Template:Cite web</ref>
The chart below, describing the development of the total population of Alavus from 1975 to 2020, encompasses the municipality's area as of 2021.
Template:Historical populations
Urban areas
In 2019, out of the total population of 6,919, 4,485 people lived in urban areas and 3,641 in sparsely populated areas, while the coordinates of 64 people were unknown. This made Alavus's degree of urbanization 60.7%.<ref name="urbanization">Template:Cite web</ref> The urban population in the municipality was divided between three urban areas as follows:<ref name="urban population">Template:Cite web</ref>
| # | Urban area | Population |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alavus central locality | 4,004 |
| 2 | Alavus railway station area | 1,240 |
| 3 | Töysä parish village | 898 |
| 4 | Tuuri | 777 |
Economy
In 2018, 9.1% of the workforce of Alavus worked in primary production (agriculture, forestry and fishing), 24.0% in secondary production (e.g. manufacturing, construction and infrastructure), and 65.6% in services. In 2019, the unemployment rate was 8.5%, and the share of pensioners in the population was 33.0%.<ref name="municipal key figures">Template:Cite web (2018 and 2019)</ref>
The ten largest employers in Alavus in 2019 were as follows:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Columns-list
Notable people
- Mimmi Bähr (1844–1923), Finnish inventor and developer of calligraphy.
- Erkki Huttunen (1901–1956), architect
- Rauha S. Virtanen (1931–2019), author
See also
References
External links
- Template:Commons category-inline
- Town of Alavus – Official website