Huddinge Municipality

Huddinge Municipality (Swedish: Huddinge kommun) is a municipality in Stockholm County, east central Sweden. It is part of the greater Stockholm area. The main town is called Huddinge, which is a busy part of the Stockholm urban area.

With around 110,000 people living there, Huddinge Municipality is the second most populated place in Stockholm County. This makes it a lively and growing community where many people live, work, and enjoy their daily lives. The area is known for being a mix of places to live, work, and have fun.

Geography

Huddinge Municipality is in the middle of the Södertörn peninsula. More than half of its land is farms, forests, hills, and lakes. It has 13 special areas to protect nature, called nature reserves.

Huddinge borders several nearby areas. These include Stockholm Municipality, Ekerö Municipality by water, Botkyrka Municipality, Haninge Municipality, and Tyresö Municipality by water.

The area includes part of the large Stockholm urban area, a smaller place called Vidja, and some rural areas.

Huddinge has six main districts: Flemingsberg, Segeltorp, Sjödalen-Fullersta, Skogås, Stuvsta-Snättringe, Trångsund, and Vårby including Masmo.

There are many lakes in the area. Some of them are Vårbyfjärden, Albysjön, Gömmaren, Långsjön, Trehörningen, Mörtsjön, Orlången, Kvarnsjön-Gladö, Kärrsjön, Holmträsket, Rudträsket, Ådran, Trehörningen-Paradiset, Långsjön-Paradiset, Ormputten, Öran, Lissmasjön, Trylen, Kvarnsjön-Lissma, Ågestasjön, Magelungen, and Drevviken.

History

Huddinge is a place that people believe has been around for more than 1,000 years, even before the Viking Age. During times of danger, people in Huddinge would go to high places to light beacons as a warning about enemy ships. This tradition gave Huddinge its coat of arms. The name "Huddinge" may come from the word "Uddung," which describes the area’s earliest known people. During the Iron Age, these people lived along the shores of Lake Mälaren.

Split into two municipalities

After many years of talks, a vote was held in 2008 to decide if the eastern part of Huddinge should become its own municipality, called Huddinge East. Only people living in eastern Huddinge were allowed to vote. The vote needed at least 60% in favor to happen, but the result was a clear "no," so the idea of splitting was ended.

Demography

Huddinge has about 110,000 people. This is 4.5% of the population of Stockholm County. The average age is 36.7 years, but many people are younger than 25. This makes Huddinge's population a bit younger than Stockholm County and Sweden overall. The number of people living in Huddinge has been growing fast. Since the 1960s, the population has doubled and is now one of the 14 biggest municipalities in Sweden. In 2008, Huddinge became more populous than Gävle, and in 2009 it passed both Eskilstuna and Sundsvall.

2022 by district

This table shows demographic details from Huddinge's electoral districts in the 2022 Swedish general election, based on official statistics from SCB.

Residents with a foreign background

In 2017, about 39.73% of people in Huddinge were either born outside Sweden or had both parents born abroad. This was up from 28.13% in 2002. Of the 110,003 residents in 2017, 32,190 were born in another country. The table below lists the most common countries where people were born outside Sweden, along with other countries grouped by continent, according to Statistics Sweden.

Schools

Huddinge has public schools and independent schools. There are also public high schools with many students. The high schools are:

• Huddingegymnasiet
• Östra Gymnasiet
• Sjödalsgymnasiet
• Sågbäcksgymnasiet
• Widerströmska gymnasiet

Public transport

Huddinge has many ways to get around thanks to the Stockholm public transport system. There are two stops on the Stockholm Metro and five stops on the Stockholm commuter rail. There are also many buses, and some big trains stop at Flemingsberg.

2018 Election

Elections in Swedish municipalities happen every four years on the second Sunday in September. In 2018, the election for the council showed that the centre-right group of parties and two local parties stayed in charge. They gained one more seat compared to the 2014 election. The Red-Green parties were in opposition. The far-right Sweden Democrats could influence decisions but usually voted with the centre-right group.

Culture

Huddinge Municipality has six public libraries, Södertörn University College, and a campus for Karolinska Institutet.

One of Sweden's largest shopping areas is Kungens Kurva. It has the world's biggest IKEA store, the country's largest cinema, and a huge shopping center. Famous musicians like Mikael Akerfeldt from Opeth and pop artist Orup grew up in Huddinge.

Sports

Huddinge is known for its ice hockey club, Huddinge IK. Many famous Swedish ice hockey players, like Michael Nylander, Mattias Norström, and Kent Johansson, started their careers there. The team often almost moved up to the top league in Sweden. Another famous player, Peter Forsberg, began his career with Modo Hockey when they played against Huddinge.

Twin cities

Huddinge Municipality has friendly relationships with several cities around the world. These include Lyngby-Taarbæk Municipality in Denmark, Vantaa in Finland, Nuuk in Greenland, Seyðisfjörður in Iceland, and Askim in Norway. These partnerships help the communities work together and learn from each other.