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	City arms
	67°51’17” N 20°13’22” E
	Charter	1948
	Municipality	Kiruna Municipality
	County	Norrbotten County
	Province	Swedish Lapland
	Population	Metropolitan:  19,000 Municipal:  23,000

Kiruna is a city in northernmost Sweden with 19,000 inhabitants; and 23,000 in the Kiruna Municipality.

The name Kiruna comes from the Sami language Giron and means ptarmigan, a white bird native to northern areas. This bird is also depicted on the city arms, together with the sign for Iron. Iron symbolizes the mining industry which has been of great importance for the town.

Geography

Kiruna became a Swedish city in 1948, and was at one time listed as the largest city in the world by area, but after the Swedish municipality reform in the 1970s, the term “city” has been discontinued. Kiruna is today the second largest municipality in the world by area, roughly 20 000 km² after Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia, 42 904 km².

The local mountain, Kebnekaise, is Sweden’s highest mountain at 2,117 metres above sea level. There are more than 6,000 lakes in Kiruna municipality, Torneträsk Lake being the largest. Seven rivers run through the municipality, named Kalix River, Torne River, Lainio River, Rautas River and Vittangi River, as well as the Könkämä River and Muonio River which mark the border to Finland. The untouched geography has also been noted with the establishment of Abisko National Park, by the Norwegian border, established as early as 1909.

Being located 145 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, Kiruna has perpetual daylight, the midnight sun, approximately from 30 May to 15 July. The polar night is a few weeks shorter, lasting December 13 – January 5.

Transportations are reliable by road (European route E10), rail and air via Kiruna Airport.

Industry

Iron ore extraction is a key industry of the area, and the town is very dependent on the mining company LKAB. During World War II, large quantities of iron were transported from northern Sweden by rail to the east coast, and further down to support German warfare. (See Swedish iron ore during World War II).

In 2004, it was decided that the present centre of the municipality (N67°49’48”, E20°25’48”) must be relocated to counter mining related subsidence. The relocation will be made gradually over the coming decade. On January 8, 2007, the new location was decided. Kiruna will gradually move northwest to the foot of the Luossavaara mountain, by the lake of Luossajärvi.^[1]

In recent years attempts have been made to reduce the area’s dependence on mining with initiatives to promote science, R&D and government related activities. Initiatives have included the proposed relocation of the Swedish Space Corporation and the establishment of the Environment and Space Research Institute (Miljö- och rymdforskningsinstitutet); the former was never executed and the latter was essentially only a temporary success.

The ESTRACK Kiruna Station of the ESA, the European Space Agency, is located in the municipality. So is Esrange, the European Space and Sounding Rocket Range, as well as an EISCAT station.

In 2007, the Swedish government announced that Kiruna would be the host of Spaceport Sweden, signing an agreement with Virgin Galactic.