How Can We Help?
You are here:
< Back

Luhanka (Swedish: Luhanka, also Luhango) is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the Central Finland region. The municipality has a population of 702 (31 December 2023)[2] and covers an area of 313.25 square kilometres (120.95 sq mi) of which 98.73 km2 (38.12 sq mi) is water.[1]

The population density is 3.27 inhabitants per square kilometre (8.5/sq mi). There are also many summertime cottages in Luhanka.

The municipality is unilingually Finnish. The municipality is also been known as "Luhango" in Swedish documents.[5]

Mimicking the badger in the coat of arms of Luhanka, the permanent residents include the official animal mascot of the municipality, Sisu the Badger (Sisu-mäyrä).[6]

Geography

Hopeasalmi, Lake Päijänne

Neighboring municipalities are Hartola, Joutsa, Jyväskylä, Jämsä, Kuhmoinen and Sysmä.

There are all together 61 lakes in Luhanka. Biggest lakes in Luhanka are Päijänne, Tammijärvi-Hauha and Jutilanjärvi.[7]

History

Luhanka was first mentioned as a village within the Sysmä parish in 1462. The village gets its name from the lake Luhankjärvi or Luhankajärvi, the name of which comes from the word luha, a variant of luhta, a word which refers to a type of swamp. -nka is a derivational suffix, which is also found in other place names such as Puolanka and Maaninka.

It was granted a chapel in 1767 and became a separate parish in 1864. Due to the small population of the municipality, the parish of Luhanka became subordinate to the parish of Joutsa in 2006.[8][9]

Notable people

References

  1. ^ a b "Area of Finnish Municipalities 1.1.2018" (PDF). National Land Survey of Finland. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
  2. ^ a b c "Population growth biggest in nearly 70 years". Population structure. Statistics Finland. 26 April 2024. ISSN 1797-5395. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
  3. ^ "Population according to age (1-year) and sex by area and the regional division of each statistical reference year, 2003–2020". StatFin. Statistics Finland. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
  4. ^ a b "Luettelo kuntien ja seurakuntien tuloveroprosenteista vuonna 2023". Tax Administration of Finland. 14 November 2022. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  5. ^ "Svenska ortnamn i Finland" (in Swedish). Research Institute for the Languages of Finland. 25 October 2012. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
  6. ^ Mäyrä-maskotti sai nimen (in Finnish)
  7. ^ "Luhanka". Järviwiki. Finland's Environmental Administration. 2012. Retrieved 27 February 2012.
  8. ^ "SuomalainenPaikannimikirja_e-kirja_kuvallinen.pdf" (PDF). kaino.kotus.fi (in Finnish). p. 244. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
  9. ^ "Luhangan seurakunta". joutsanseurakunta.filanguage=fi. Retrieved 16 August 2022.


Categories
Table of Contents