Finland Municipalities

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Kunta is the Finnish word for municipality, with a similar meaning as the Swedish kommune. A municipality is the basic unit of government administration.

Municipalities

Prior to 1977 there were two types of municipalities in Finland, maalaiskunta and maaseurakunta.

Maalaiskunta

This term is used to identify a rural municipality (maalais-: rural) near a city administered by the civil government. It is often abbreviated as mlk. In Finland, the concept of a rural municipality was born in the 1865 reform of municipal administration, where rural local government was separated from the parishes of the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church.

In some of the municipalities called maalaiskunta, there was no congregation called maaseurakunta, but the members of the municipality belonging to the church belonged to the same congregation as the residents belonging to the church of the town or town with the same name as the rural municipality. The "Municipal Act of 1977" (Kuntalaki) removed the legal division of municipalities into cities, townships and rural municipalities, so the term "rural municipality" no longer appears in the law.

Maaseurakunta

This term is used to identify a rural parish, or country church (administered by the church, not the government). It is often abbreviated as msk. or msrk. The Swedish term is landsförsamling.

This term is a designation that has been used in Finland suffixed to the name of Evangelical Lutheran parishes in rural communities with the same name as cities or towns, such as Sortavalan maaseurakunta (the Sortavala rural parish). In this case, the name of the parish of the same name in the city or township had the ending kaupkasseurakunta or kaupalaseurakunta appended to its name. City, township and country parish were not administrative concepts, but simply designations used for clarity.

Pitäjä

Sometimes spelled pitäjäs, this word means parish, and was applied to administrative and ecclesiastical bodies until the 1865 reform. After the reform the word has been informally used to mean the territory of a rural municipality (maalaiskunta). In current use it refers to the area of a former rural municipality that was annexed to another municipality. The corresponding Swedish term is socken. It is frequently translated as "keeper" or "maintainer" when translated by many automated translation systems which causes difficulty in correctly understanding the translated material.

Cities in 1940

Cities had their own rights under the law and had their own courts separate from the districts (kihlakunta) where they were found. In 1940 the cities, listed by county, were as follows. The Swedish names are given in parentheses.

Ahvenanmaa (Landskapet Åland)

• Maarianhamina (Mariehamn)

Häme (Tavastehus)

• Hämeenlinna (Tavastehus)
• Tampere (Tammerfors)
• Lahti (Lahti)

Kuopio (Kuopio)

• Kuopio (Kuopio)
• Joensuu (Joensuu)
• Iisalmi (Iisalmi)

Lappi (Lappland)

• Kemi (Kemi)
• Tornio (Torneå)

Mikkeli (S:t Michel)

• Mikkeli (S:t Michel)
• Heinola (Heinola)
• Savonlinna (Nyslott)

Oulu (Uleåborg)

• Oulu (Uleåborg)
• Raahe (Brahestad)
• Kajaani (Kajaani)

Turku-Pori (Åbo-Björneborg)

• Turku (Åbo)
• Pori Björneborg)
• Rauma (Raumo)
• Uusikaupiunki (Nystad)
• Naantali (Nådendal)

Uusimaa (Nyland)

• Helsinki (Helsingfors)
• Loviisa (Lovisa)
• Porvoo (Borgå)
• Tammisaari (Ekenäs)
• Hanko (Hangö)

Vaasa (Vasa)

• Vaasa (Vasa)
• Laslomem (Kaskö)
• Kristiinankaupunki (Kristnestad)
• Uusikaarlepyy (Nykarleby)
• Pietarsaari (Jakobstad)
• Kokkoa (Gamlakarleby)
• Jyväskylä (Jyväskylä)

Viipuri (Viborg)

• Viipuri (Viborg)
• Sortavala (Sortavala)
• Käkisalmi (Käkisalmi)
• Lappeenranta (Vilmanstrand)
• Hamina (Fredrikshamn)
• Kotka (Kotka)

Tips

• Knowing the former and current municipality for a location will help you find records in the collections of the Lääninhallitus (the county administration)
• Place names in modern gazetteers often refer to the municipality to which the place belongs