Inari, Finland


Inari is Finland's largest municipality, with four official languages, more than any other in the country. Its major sources of income are tourism, service industry and cold climate testing. With the Siida museum in the village of Inari, it is a center of Sami culture. The airport in Ivalo and the country's key north-south European Route E75 bring summer and winter vacationers seeking resorts with access to a well-preserved, uncrowded natural environment.

Demographics

Population

The municipality of Inari has a population of . The population density is.
Its two largest villages are Ivalo and Inari. Other villages are Törmänen, Keväjärvi, Koppelo, Sevettijärvi–Näätämö, Saariselkä, Nellim, Angeli, Kaamanen, Kuttura, Lisma, Partakko, and Riutula.

Languages

The municipality has four official languages: Finnish, Inari Sami, Skolt Sami, and Northern Sami. The estimates of how many people have some command of each of the Sami languages differ from the number of people who list them as their mother tongues. Of the total population of 6,863 in 2010, 6,366 people registered Finnish and 400 people registered one of the Sami languages as their mother tongue. Ninety-seven inhabitants were native speakers of other languages.

Citizenship

Only about 1%, 78 persons, were citizens of countries other than Finland in 2010.

Geography

Inari is the largest municipality in Finland. Located in Lapland, it covers an area of, of which is water. With an area of, Lake Inari is the third largest lake in Finland, smaller than the country's second largest Lake Päijänne.
Finland's largest National Park Lemmenjoki is partly located in Inari, as is the Urho Kekkonen National Park. Vast parts of the municipality are designated wilderness areas: Hammastunturi, Muotkatunturi, Paistunturi, Kaldoaivi, Vätsäri, and Tsarmitunturi.
The village of Inari is Finland's northernmost holiday resort. The airport is located in the nearby village of Ivalo.
Inari has a chilly and humid climate with fairly cold winters and cool summers. Due to the polar night, winter time temperatures are often severely cold. However, the midnight sun contributes to surprisingly high summertime temperatures. The warmest temperature ever recorded at Ivalo Airport was in July 1925, while the coldest temperature on record was in January 1999. However, in July 1914 Thule weather station in western Inari recorded an unofficial record high temperature of, which is the highest temperature ever recorded in Lapland. Inari is also among the driest locations in Finland, especially in the winter when the average precipitation total is less than half of the amount that Southern Finland receives. The driest year on record was 1941 when only 120,1 mm fell.

Politics

Results of the 2011 Finnish parliamentary election in Inari:
The municipality was established in 1876.

Sites of interest