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 60,622 (30 September 2012) (approximately 90,000 in the Vaasa sub-region), and is the regional capital of Ostrobothnia (Swedish: Österbotten, Finnish: Pohjanmaa).

The city is bilingual with 69.8% of the population speaking Finnish as their first language and 24.8% speaking Swedish, but the surrounding municipalities have much higher rates of Swedish-speakers than that. These circumstances make the region as well as the city an important centre for Finland-Swedish culture.