Stad (Sweden)
Stad (Swedish: 'town; city'; plural städer) is a
History
The status of towns in Sweden was formerly granted by a royal charter, comparable to the United Kingdom's status of borough or burgh before the 1970s or city status today. Unless given such town privileges, a municipality could not call itself stad. To receive the privileges, there were several requirements a municipality needed to fulfill, like being of a certain size, and to have certain facilities.[clarification needed] The criteria varied over time as they were at the discretion of the Riksdag or the monarch, but they could include a permanent town council hall and a prison.
In the majority of cases, before a town received its charter, it would have previously been given the status of
In the Late Middle Ages, c. 1450, Sweden (excluding Finland) had 41 chartered towns. By 1680 there were 83. The only town founded and chartered during the 18th century was Östersund (1786). In 1863 the first local government acts were implemented in Sweden. Of the around 2,500 municipalities that were created, 88 were chartered towns. The main difference between these and other municipalities was that a stad had its own jurisdiction, i.e. independent town courts. There were also laws on urban planning and building (Byggnadstadgan 1874), fire prevention (Brandstadgan 1874), public order (Ordningsstadgan 1868) and public health (Hälsovårdsstadgan 1874) which were compulsory applicable to towns. Prior to 1900, the two minor towns of Borgholm and Haparanda lost their courts, but retained the title of stad.
Of the new towns chartered between 1901 and 1951 (44, making the total number of towns 133), not a single one was given its own jurisdiction, but remained under what was called landsrätt ("rural jurisdiction").
20th century reforms
In the middle of the 20th century many administrative reforms were carried out that continued to diminish the difference between rural and urban areas.
The
Modern use
Most of the
A few municipalities which used to be towns still style themselves as stad, e.g. Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. There are also municipalities with considerable rural areas that market themselves with the term.
Urban population
Largest urban areas in 1850:[1]
- Stockholm (93,000 inhabitants)
- Gothenburg (26,000)
- Norrköping (17,000)
- Karlskrona (14,000)
- Malmö (13,000)
Largest urban areas in 1900:[2]
- Stockholm (300,624)
- Gothenburg (130,609)
- Malmö (60,857)
- Norrköping (41,008)
- Gävle (29,522)
- Helsingborg (24,670)
- Karlskrona (23,955)
- Jönköping (23,143)
- Uppsala (22,855)
- Örebro (22,013)
- Lund (16,621)
- Borås (15,837)
- Halmstad (15,362)
See also
References
- ^ Statistics from Statistics Sweden website "Fakta om statistiken - Statistik från SCB". Archived from the original on 29 August 2006. Retrieved 3 June 2006., accessed June 2006
- 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, article Sweden
Sources
- This article contains content from the Owl Edition of Nordisk familjebok, a Swedish encyclopedia published between 1904 and 1926, now in the public domain.