Rovaniemi
Rovaniemi is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Lapland. It is located near the Arctic Circle in the northern interior of the country. The population of Rovaniemi is approximately, while the sub-region has a population of approximately. It is the most populous municipality in Finland, and the 11th most populous urban area in the country.
Rovaniemi is the administrative capital and commercial centre of Finland's northernmost province, Lapland, and its southern part Peräpohjola. The city centre is situated about south of the Arctic Circle and is between the hills of Ounasvaara and Korkalovaara, at the confluence of the river Kemijoki and its tributary, the Ounasjoki. It is the second-largest city of Northern Finland after Oulu, and, together with the capital city Helsinki, it is one of Finland's most significant tourist cities in terms of foreign tourism. In 2024, CNN listed Rovaniemi as "one of the best places in the world to celebrate Christmas."
The city and the surrounding Rovaniemen maalaiskunta were consolidated into a single entity on 1 January 2006. Rovaniemi municipality has an approximate population of. The urban area of Rovaniemi has a population of 53,361, in an area of about. Rovaniemi is a monolingual Finnish-speaking municipality, and unusually for larger Finnish towns, it is also known by its Finnish name and spelling in the Swedish language.
The coat of arms of Rovaniemi was designed by Toivo Vuorela. Its explanation is "in the green field, a silver pall with light-height upper branches; accompanied by a golden flame in the upper corner". It was approved on 15 August 1956 by the Rovaniemi Rural Municipal Council and confirmed on October 26 at the Ministry of the Interior as the coat of arms of the Rovaniemi Rural Council.
Name
The rova part in the name Rovaniemi has often been considered to be of Saami origin, as roavve in Northern Saami denotes a forested ridge or hill or the site of an old forest fire. The niemi part of the name means "cape". The name of the town in the Saami languages spoken in Finland are, and Roavvenjárga and.History
Periodic clearance of new land for agriculture and the practice of slash-and-burn cultivation began around 750–530 BC. Artifacts found in the area suggest that an increasing number of travellers from Karelia in the east, Häme in the south and the Arctic Ocean coast in the north must have come there from 500 AD onwards. The Sami are indigenous to Sápmi.Rovaniemi is first mentioned by name in official documents in 1453, existing as a set of small villages whose inhabitants earned their living mainly in agriculture and animal husbandry—with fishing and hunting the most important offshoots.
The exploitation of Lapland's natural resources in the 1800s boosted Rovaniemi's growth. Extensive logging sites and gold fever attracted thousands of people to Lapland. As the mining of natural resources was increased, Rovaniemi became the business centre of the province of Lapland.
The township decree was promulgated on 27 June 1928, as a result of which Rovaniemi seceded from the old rural municipality as its own market town on 1 January 1929.
World War II
During World War II, Finland signed the Moscow Armistice on 19 September 1944 and was required to expel forces of its former German ally. In the Lapland War retreating German forces utilised scorched earth tactics, and though initially German General Lothar Rendulic ordered only the public buildings in Rovaniemi to be destroyed, on 13 October 1944, the German army received orders to destroy all the buildings in Rovaniemi, only excluding hospitals and houses where inhabitants were present.While the German rearguard was going about the destruction, an ammunition train in Rovaniemi station exploded and set fire to the wooden houses of the town. The German troops suffered many casualties, mainly from glass splinters. During these hostilities, 90% of all the buildings in Rovaniemi were destroyed. There is a German cemetery 19 km from Rovaniemi where soldiers killed fighting in Lapland during the war are buried.
Although there has been continuous human settlement in the Rovaniemi area since at least the Stone Age, few of the buildings date back before 1944, since most of the city was destroyed during World War II. When the city was rebuilt, it was designed with input by the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, who planned the city's footprint in the shape of a reindeer's head, with the city roads forming the antlers, and the local sports stadium as the reindeer's eye.
Geography
Climate
Due to its location near the Arctic Circle, Rovaniemi has a subarctic climate with short, pleasant summers, while the winters are long, cold and snowy. The city lies just south of the mean annual isotherm, but freezing in the soil is very limited even during the winter due to typical heavy snow cover. Its extreme northerly location combined with frequent overcast skies leads to very low levels of sunshine in the winter months; December averages just under six minutes of sunshine daily. The "midnight sun" is above the horizon from 7 June to 6 July.Winters are somewhat modified by marine air from the North Atlantic Current that ensures average temperatures are less extreme than expected for an inland area at such a northerly latitude. Nevertheless, Rovaniemi still has colder winters than areas at similar latitudes in Norway or Sweden.
On 26 April 2019, Rovaniemi recorded its warmest April day on record with.
The average annual temperature in Rovaniemi is. Snow stays on the ground 175 days a year on average. The lowest temperature ever recorded at the airport is, recorded on 28 January 1999. However, on the same day temperatures as cold as -47.5 C were recorded at nearby weather stations.
The highest temperature ever recorded is, recorded on 18 July 2018 at the railway station.
Despite the fact that Rovaniemi experiences polar day between 7 June and 6 July it does not experience polar night. However, the sun barely gets above the horizon in the winter.
Populated places
Some of the neighborhoods are former rural villages, and the longest distance from said neighborhoods to the city center can be estimated to almost a hundred kilometers apart:- Alakorkalo
- Ala-Nampa
- Auttinseutu
- Hirvas
- Jaatila
- Juotasniemi
- Karvonranta
- Katajaranta
- Kauko
- Kiiruna
- Kivitaipale
- Kolpene
- Korkalovaara
- Koskenkylä
- Lehtojärvi
- Leipee
- Lohiniva
- Marrasjärvi
- Marraskoski
- Meltaus
- Misi
- Muurola
- Narkaus
- Niesi
- Nivankylä
- Nivavaara
- Norvajärvi
- Oikarainen
- Ojanperä
- Olkkajärvi
- Ounasrinne
- Paavalniemi
- Patokoski
- Pekkala
- Perunkajärvi
- Petäjäinen
- Pisa
- Pullinranta
- Pöykkölä
- Rantaviiri
- Rautiosaari
- Ruikka
- Saarenkylä
- Sinettä
- Santamäki
- Sonka
- Syväsenvaara
- Tapionkylä
- Tennilä
- Teollisuuskylä
- Tiainen
- Tuhnaja
- Vaarala
- Vanttausjärvi
- Vanttauskoski
- Vennivaara
- Viiri
- Vikajärvi
- Välijoki
- Ylikylä
- Yli-Nampa
Demographics
Population
The city of Rovaniemi has inhabitants, making it the most populous municipality in Finland. The Rovaniemi region has a population of.Languages
Rovaniemi 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. The number of Sámi speakers, Finland's third official language, was persons 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 Rovaniemi. The most common foreign languages are Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese, English, and Arabic.
Immigration
, there were 3,778 persons with a migrant background living in Rovaniemi, or 6% of the population. The number of residents who were born abroad was 4,367, or 7% of the population. The number of persons with foreign citizenship living in Rovaniemi was 2,886. Most foreign-born citizens came from Sweden, the former Soviet Union, Ukraine, China and Russia.The relative share of immigrants in Rovaniemi'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 69.1% of the population of Rovaniemi. Other religious groups accounted for 1.6% of the population. 29.3% of the population had no religious affiliation.Of the revival movements within the church, Conservative Laestadianism is particularly active in the locality, with three peace associations in the locality: the Rovaniemi Peace Association, the Rautionsaari Peace Association and the Viirinkylä Peace Association.
Other local communities include the Rovaniemi Pentecostal Church, a member of the Finnish Pentecostal Church, and the Rovaniemi Adventist Church, part of the Finnish Adventist Church.
Economy
Since Rovaniemi is the capital of the region of Lapland, many government institutions have their offices there. About 10,000 of the inhabitants are students. Rovaniemi is home to not only the University of Lapland but also the Lapland University of Applied Sciences, which comprises institutes of information and traditional technology, business, health and social care, culinary studies, forestry, rural studies, and sports. Local newspapers include the Lapin Kansa, Uusi Rovaniemi and Lappilainen.Tourism
Because of the unspoiled nature of the area and numerous recreational opportunities, tourism is an important industry in Rovaniemi. The city has a number of hotels and restaurants located both in the centre and on the outskirts of the town, hosting over 481,000 visitors in 2013. Tourism can be seen and heard in the city's streetscape, at the Arctic Circle and at Rovaniemi Airport, one of Finland's busiest airports in terms of passenger numbers. However, as a mild phenomenon, popularity of the city has also brought overtourism, from which the locals suffer.Rovaniemi is also considered by Finns to be the official home town of Santa Claus. The city registered the slogan as trademark in 2009. In 2025, an invalidation request was filed at the European Union Intellectual Property Office, arguing the trademark is descriptive and potentially deceptive. It is home to the Santa Claus Village at the Arctic Circle and SantaPark Arctic World, which is located north of the centre.
Directly across the river from the town is the Ounasvaara ski centre. There have been recreational activities in the Ounasvaara area since 1927, when the first winter sports were also organized. The top of the Ounasvaara hill bears the site of some of the earliest known human settlements in the area.
A phenomenon also attracting numerous tourists is the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. In Finnish Lapland, the number of auroral displays can be as high as 200 a year, whereas in southern Finland, the number is usually fewer than 20.