Kiruna (commune)

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Kiruna Municipality is a municipality in Norrbotten County in northernmost Sweden. Its seat is located in Kiruna. It is the northernmost municipality in Sweden, and at is Sweden's geographically largest covering roughly 4.604% of its total area.Finnish, Meänkieli and Sami have the official status of being minority languages in the municipality.During the 20th century the mining settlement Kiruna was built in the parish of Jukkasjärvi, at that time a rural municipality in very remote territory. A so-called municipalsamhälle was instituted in 1908. The settlement grew and it was decided to make it a city. On January 1, 1948 the whole parish of Jukkasjärvi was transformed into the City of Kiruna. As the vast wilderness around the town itself was included, Kiruna was at that time regarded as the largest city municipality in the world. Only a few more cities were instituted in Sweden, the last one in 1951. Instead the differences between the three types of municipalities were diminished and finally abolished altogether. In 1971 Kiruna, as all others, became a unitary municipality and at the same time merged with Karesuando.