Stad (Sweden)

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The Swedish term stad, which is the equivalent of both city and town has since 1971 in Sweden no administrative or legal significance and even no official definition which is commonly agreed upon.

Contents 1 History 2 Today 3 Populations 4 See also 5 References 6 Sources

[edit] History

The status of stad in Sweden was formerly granted by a Royal Charter, comparable to City status in the United Kingdom.

To receive the privilege of city, there were several requirements that a town needed to fulfil. Apart from being of a certain size, it was also necessary to have certain necessities. The criteria varied throughout the centuries as they were at the discretion of the parliament (the Riksdag) or the monarch, but it could include a council hall and a prison.

Before a city became chartered it usually had previously been given the status of köping (merchant town). Exceptions would be when a city was founded under Royal supervision, in which case the city would often bear the name of the monarch, such as Kristianstad or Karlskrona (named after kings Christian IV of Denmark and Karl IX of Sweden).

At the end of the medieval age, circa 1450, Sweden (excluding Finland) had 41 chartered cities. By around 1680 there were 83. The only city founded and chartered during the 18th century was Östersund (1786).

In 1863 the first local government acts were implemented in Sweden. Of the around 2,500 municipalities that were created, 88 were cities. From that year the cities were municipalities with an elected city council. The main difference between cities and other municipalities was that the cities had its own jurisdiction, i.e. own city courts. There were also some laws concerning planning and building (Byggnadstadgan 1874), fire and rescue (Brandstadgan 1874), public order (Ordningsstadgan 1868) and public health (Hälsovårdsstadgan 1874) which were compulsory applicable to cities. Up to the year 1900 two minor cities (Borgholm and Haparanda) lost their city courts, but they retained the city title. Of the new cities instituted 1901-1951 (44, making the total number of cities 133) not a single one got its own jurisdiction, but remained under what was called landsrätt ("rural jurisdiction"). In the middle of the 20th century many reforms were carried out, which even more diminished the administrative difference between rural and urban areas. The police forces and the district courts as well as the tax authorities were centralized under national government agencies, making the administration uniform all over the country. The amalgamations of municipalities reduced the number of local government units from a maximum (in 1930) of 2,532 to less than 300 today. Most municipalities contained now both rural and urban areas. There was simply no need to differentiate between cities and other municipalities, as all had the same powers. From January 1st 1971 all municipalities are designated as kommun, regardless of their former status.

[edit] Today

Most of the urban areas of Sweden once making up the chartered cities are today still often referred to as cities/towns. The majority of them are also seats of their respective municipalities. The difference is that stad nowadays is a geographical term, rather than an administrative one. In some municipalities there could be more than one town, e.g. Eskilstuna and Torshälla in Eskilstuna Municipality. The city of Visby is the seat of Gotland Municipality, but is no political entity of its own. Some towns have also grown together, forming one urban area.

Statistics Sweden defines a stad as a locality with more than 10,000 inhabitants. There are slightly more than 100 such towns in the country.

A few municipalities, however, still prefer to style themselves as cities. That applies to e.g. Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. But also some municipalities with considerable rural areas use the denomination stad for the total territory. Naturally complications arise when a municipality decides to call itself "city", when the "city" only refers to the urban area in daily speech.

[edit] Populations

In 1850, the largest cities were: Stockholm (93,000 inhabitants), Göteborg (26,000), Norrköping (17,000), Karlskrona (14,000), Malmö (13,000).^[1]

In the year 1900 the largest cities were:^[2]

• Stockholm (300,624),
• Göteborg (130,609),
• Malmö (60,857),
• Norrköping (41,008),
• Gävle (29,522).
• Helsingborg (24,670),
• Karlskrona (23,955),
• Jönköping (23,143),
• Uppsala (22,855),
• Örebro (22,013),
• Lund (16,621),
• Borås (15,837)
• Halmstad (15,362).

[edit] See also

• Urban areas in Sweden
• List of cities in Sweden, with the year they were chartered.

[edit] References

[edit] Sources

• Corresponding article on Swedish Wikipedia
• This article contains content from the Owl Edition of Nordisk familjebok, a Swedish encyclopedia published between 1904–1926 now in public domain.