Kouvola

Kouvola is a city in Finland and the administrative capital of Kymenlaakso. It is located in the southeastern interior of the country. The population of Kouvola is approximately. It is the most populous municipality in Finland, and the 17th most populous List of [urban areas in Finland by population|urban area] in the country.
Kouvola is located along the Kymijoki River in the region of Kymenlaakso, kilometers east of Lahti, west of Lappeenranta and northeast of the capital, Helsinki. With Kotka, Kouvola is one of the capital centers and is the largest city in the Kymenlaakso region.
The urban area of Kouvola in the city centre itself is home to about 47,000 people. The city covers an area of of which is water. The population density is. Kouvola is bordered by the municipalities of Hamina, Heinola, Iitti, Kotka, Lapinjärvi, Loviisa, Luumäki, Miehikkälä, Mäntyharju, Pyhtää and Savitaipale. Kouvola has over 450 lakes and, together with Mäntyharju, the Kouvola area includes the Repovesi National Park.
Kouvola, which had population growth as late as the 1980s, has suffered a loss of population due to migration since the 1990s. Over time, the loss has only deepened, so that at the end of the 2010s Kouvola had the highest rate of population loss by migration in Finland. Natural demographics have also trended downward; in 2017, more than 450 more people died in the city than new ones were born. Currently, the population of Kouvola is decreasing annually by about 800 inhabitants. The reasons for the emigration are thought to be largely due to job losses in the region. The city has placed expectations for economic recovery on various projects, such as the TikTok data center planned for Koria village.

History

In the Middle Ages, the Kouvola region were borderlands between the provinces of Uusimaa, Häme and Karelia. The Kymijoki River served as the border river between Sweden and the Russian Empire from 1743 to 1809.
The village of Kouvola has been inhabited since the Middle Ages, and it has belonged alternately to the parishes of Hollola, Iitti and Valkeala. However, the actual development did not start until the 1870s when the Riihimäki–Saint Petersburg railway line was built and Kouvola became a railway junction. In the next decade, the Savonia railway was built from Kouvola to the north and the Kotka line to the south, resulting in Kouvola becoming one of the busiest railway junctions in Finland. Over time, Kouvola developed into an important pulp-producing, paper-milling and printing centre and even had a leading industrial engineering sector.
In 1918, conflict between the Red and White factions raged heavily during the Finnish Civil War. More than 200 people were killed in the area during the fighting.
As a result of the railway, Kouvola was heavily built. In 1922 it was separated from the municipality of Valkeala and gained commercial rights immediately the following year. The city of Kouvola was established in 1960. Kouvola was annexed to Viipuri Province in 1922–1945 but in 1940 and 1944, most of Viipuri County was ceded to the Soviet Union, and the remaining areas were formed into Kymi Province in 1945. Kouvola had also become an administrative center; As the capital of Kymen County, it operated from 1955 until the 1997 county reform.
In January 2009, the six municipalities of Kouvola, Kuusankoski, Elimäki, Anjalankoski, Valkeala and Jaala were consolidated, forming the new municipality of Kouvola. Kouvola has also assumed the slogan Kymijoen kaupunki previously used by Anjalankoski.

Culture

The name itself derives from Old Finnish kouvo, meaning bear. The arms are Sable, an escarbuncle Or, base wavy Argent.
Verla factory, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is located near Kouvola.
The newspapers Kouvolan Sanomat and Keskilaakso are published in Kouvola.
The third biggest Amusement park in Finland, called Tykkimäki is located in Kouvola.

Province History of Kouvola

Sports

Kouvola is the hometown of the Sudet sports club, which became Finnish champions in bandy six consecutive times, and they have a football team which is playing at the fourth highest level, Kolmonen, despite Sudet being one of the oldest football clubs in Finland. KooKoo is the most successful ice hockey team in Kymenlaakso. It plays in the Finnish top league, SM-liiga. Kouvolan Pallonlyöjät is a baseball team based in Kouvola and known for Pesäpallo. KPL was won five Finnish championships and it plays in the Finnish top league, Superpesis. Kouvot is a basketball team based in Kouvola. the team plays in the highest level Korisliiga and has won four Finnish championships.
MyPa is one of the most successful football clubs in Finland and the 1990s was the golden era. MyPa is played 23 seasons in the Finnish top football league Veikkausliiga. MyPa are based in the industrial village of Myllykoski, part of the city of Kouvola. The club became inactive in professional football after having ceased operations in 2015 due to financial difficulties. In 2017, MyPa returned and started again from the fourth highest tier but has quickly risen to the second highest level, Ykkönen, where it is now playing.
Kouvola also has a Palomäki Ski Jump Center, very close to the city, where young people and other sports enthusiasts can go to jump on a ski jump.

Climate

Kouvola has humid continental climate.The city has four distinct seasons, the amount of precipitation is relatively uniform throughout the year. The driest season is spring. Summers are generally relatively warm as the city is considered to be one of the hottest cities in Finland as it has had the most days with "helle" since 2000. Winters are cold and long, colder than cities located in the coastal areas of Finland because of its location further inland, meaning the marine effect doesn't affect the city as much than those nearer the sea and specially those nearer the southwestern coasts of the Finnish side of Gulf of Finland. This also means that the summers are warmer due to it being further inland as the sea effect is making the summer temperatures slightly cooler in coastal areas. The average annual temperature is. The highest ever recorded temperature in the station was, on July 28, 2010. The lowest ever recorded was. The city has a significant rainfall throughout the year and even in the driest month the precipitation stays over a month. The average duration of sunshine per year is 1,658 hours.
Kouvola Utti airport weather station has on average somewhat lower average temperatures than in the city.

Demographics

Population

The city of Kouvola has inhabitants, making it the most populous municipality in Finland.

Languages

Kouvola is a monolingual Finnish-speaking municipality., the majority of the population, persons, spoke Finnish as their first language. In addition, the number of Swedish speakers was persons of the population. Foreign languages were spoken by of the population. As English and Swedish are compulsory school subjects, functional bilingualism or trilingualism acquired through language studies is not uncommon.
At least 40 different languages are spoken in Kouvola. The most commonly spoken foreign languages are Russian, Ukrainian, Estonian and Arabic.
The language spoken in the Kouvola area is based on the Southeast Häme dialect, which belongs to the Tavastian dialects.

Immigration

, there were 4,731 persons with a foreign background living in Kouvola, or 6% of the population. The number of residents who were born abroad was 4,608, or 6% of the population. The number of persons with foreign citizenship living in Kouvola was 3,008. Most foreign-born citizens came from the former Soviet Union, Estonia, Russia and Ukraine.
The relative share of immigrants in Kouvola's population is below to 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 69.2% of the population of Kouvola. Other religious groups accounted for 2.0% of the population. 28.8% of the population had no religious affiliation.

International relations

Twin towns and sister cities

Kouvola is twinned with:

Regionalization

Region Committee	Population	Area km²	Population Density
Kouvola central	30,185	44.88	672.57
Kuusankoski	20,647	692.07	29.83
Anjalankoski	15,000	752.92	19.92
Valkeala	11,433	1003.72	11.39
Elimäki	7,900	391.74	20.17
5 region Committee	85,165	2,885.33	29.52

''Jaala is only one does not form its own regional committee, but is part of the Kuusankoski regional committee.''