Huddinge Municipality

Geography

The municipality covers the entire central part of the Södertörn peninsula. More than half of the land area consists of agriculture, forests, hills, or lakes, and it contains seven nature reserves.

Huddinge borders the following municipalities: Stockholm Municipality, Ekerö Municipality (by water), Botkyrka Municipality, Haninge Municipality and Tyresö Municipality (by water).

Natural reserves

Lakes

Demography

Huddinge has a total population of roughly 100,000, or 4.5% of the population of Stockholm County. The average age is 36.7 years, but one-third of the population is under 25 years of age. This means that Huddinge has a slightly younger population than both Stockholm County (38.9 years) and the whole country (40.6 years). The population density of the municipality is increasing significantly. Since the 1960s, the population has doubled in size and is currently among the 14 largest municipalities in Sweden. The population of Huddinge passed the one of Gävle in 2008, and the ones of Eskilstuna and Sundsvall as well in 2009.

Localities

History

It is believed that the history of Huddinge goes back at least 1,000 years, to before the Viking Age. When hostile ships approached the community, the inhabitants of Huddinge would climb to high locations and light beacons. Beacons were located around the entirety of Lake Mälaren. Huddinge's coat of arms has its origins in this tradition. The name Huddinge is believed to come from the Uddung's - the first inhabitants in this area, which during the Iron Age lived on the shores of Lake Mälaren nearby Vårby.

Public transport

Huddinge is served by the Stockholm public transport system. There are two stations on the Stockholm Metro and five on the Stockholm commuter rail system as well as large bus network. Some main line trains call at Flemingsberg.

Subdivisions

Huddinge municipality is sub-divided into six districts:

There are four territorial parishes of the Church of Sweden within the municipality: Huddinge, Trångsund, Flemingsberg and St. Mikael.

Culture

The municipality contains six public libraries, Södertörn University College and one of the campuses for Karolinska Institutet.

Kungens Kurva is one of Sweden's largest shopping areas. It hosts, among other things, the largest IKEA store in the world, the largest cinema in the country, and a large shopping centre. In total, it generates a turnover of 6 billion Swedish kronor and has 15 million visitors per year.

Sports

The most known sports club in Huddinge is the ice hockey club Huddinge IK, which has fostered a long line of well-known Swedish ice hockey players, such as Michael Nylander, Mattias Norström and Kent Johansson, and used to be a regular runner up in the Swedish second division and the qualifications for the Elitserien. Peter Forsberg also happened to make his debut as a senior player with his original club Modo Hockey, facing Huddinge away.

Split into two municipalities

After years of debate a vote is planned was 2008 regarding a split of Huddinge into two different municipalities named in published documents as Huddinge and Huddinge östra ("Huddinge East"). The intention with a split is to make the eastern part of Huddinge its own municipality after years of protests from inhabitants. Due to large protests it was decided in 2007 to hold a vote regarding the split. However it was proposed that only the inhabitants of eastern Huddinge would be allowed to vote. This has caused a major political split of opinions as the political opposition wants to see a vote. At least 60% of the inhabitants of eastern Huddinge must vote yes for the split to be performed.

The referendum ended with a clear no to the split, ending the discussion.

Twin cities