Finland - Vaasa

Vaasa (Swedish: Vasa) is a city on the west coast of Finland. It received its charter in 1606, during the reign of Charles IX of Sweden and is named after the Royal House of Vasa. Today, Vaasa has a population of 57,501 (July 2007)[1] , and is part of the administrative province of Western Finland and is the regional capital of Ostrobothnia.

The city is bilingual with 71.5% of the population speaking Finnish as their first language and 24.9% speaking Swedish. The city is an important centre for Finland-Swedish culture

Name

Over the years, Vaasa has changed its name several times, due to alternative spellings, political decisions and language condition changes. At first it was called Mustasaari or Mussor after the village where it was founded in 1606, but just a few years later the name was changed to Wasa to honor the royal Swedish lineage. The city was known as Wasa between 1606 and 1855, Nikolainkaupunki (Finnish) and Nikolaistad (Swedish) between 1855 and 1917, Vaasa (Finnish) and Vasa (Swedish) beginning from 1917, with the Finnish name being the primary name from ca 1930 when Finnish speakers became the majority in the city.