Municipal facts in brief
More than 200 kms hs! of cycle pat
45 kms of beautiful beaches!
Halmstad – leads to the sea... Halmstad has a population of around 92,000 who don’t want to be anywhere else. During the summer months this figure increases, as summerhouses, hotels and campsites are filled with visitors from near and far. Halmstad is one of Sweden’s hottest tourist destinations with sunny beaches and a continental feel to the nightlife, full of encounters, experiences and events. Halmstad is the county town of Halland and the red renaissance castle has been the home of the county governor since 1658. Halmstad also became
the “regional capital” for Region Halland in 2011, which is responsible for healthcare, public transport and culture. Halmstad is an expansive municipality – the country’s 18th largest – and well on its way to a population of over 100,000. Its driving force is a blossoming trade and industry sector, an expansive university college and extensive public sector.
The municipality’s vision, Halmstad 2020, is the starting point for how Halmstad will develop. Halmstad’s three hearts represent the different things the municipality wants to achieve: Hometown. A municipality where people can meet in safety, with respect and love. The city of knowledge. A place where people grow through education, enterprise and new thinking. The city for experiences. An atmosphere that gives a lust for life through activities, a community spirit and a quality of life.
Sun and sea in Tylösand!
Pippi’s playground, hay ho ho!
Stora Torg, church & City Hall
A hometown to enjoy
Facts about Halmstad 2011 Tax: (municipal and county council): SEK 20.78 (one of the country’s lowest). No. of employees: Around 7,900 people work for Halmstad municipality in more than 70 professions – three quarters of them in healthcare, schools and care.
The municipality stretches along the River Nissan and River Fylle, with the city at the mouth of the River Nissan. From the beaches of the MALMÖ 136 Kattegatt in the west, to the deep forests on the border of Småland in the east, from the fertile fields of the Laholm flat lands in the HAMBURG 502 south, to the ridges bordering Falkenberg’s municipality in the east. Almost one third of all of the county of Halland’s 300,000 inhabitants live here, in a municipality that since the elections in 2010 is governed by the “five-leaved clover”, Moderaterna (Conservatives), Folkpartiet (Liberals), Centre Party, The Green Party and The Christian Democrats, with a mandate of 37 in the city council.
Cost: The municipality’s overall activities cost around SEK 6 billion to run (2010), or SEK 65,000 per inhabitant. A third is paid for by people paying for the municipality’s services and two thirds are paid for through tax revenues.
GÖTEBORG 136
Organisation: Political power is exercised by the municipal council, municipal executive committee and 13 committees for various activities. There are 293 directly elected individuals. Five of these individuals work full time with municipal political management as municipal councillors. One of these five is the chairman of the municipal council and represents the biggest of the parties that formed the political majority. For the 2011-2014 period it is the Moderaternas.
STOCKHOLM 503
The 71 directly elected councils are members of the municipal government and meet once a month in City Hall, built in 1938 on Stora Torg.
Halmstad receives top grades in many surveys:
Halmstad: A favourite municipality! Third place in TNS/SIFO’s survey “Favourite Swedish municipalities” 2010.
MALMÖ Halmstad: The city to live in!
136
GÖTEBORG 143
Second place when the Media Academy from Göteborg University asked STOCKHOLM 492 the question, “A good city toBERLIN live in”. 405
Halmstad: When the people of Halmstad decide! High opinions in terms of education, employment, public transport and range of sports and leisure facilities and commercial service in SCB’s civil survey.
River Nissan n – the salmo love it!
Activities are run via 13 government services. The Child and Youth Welfare Services Department is the biggest with one third of the total budget. The city planning offices coordinate, develop and support the municipality’s different departments and companies and prepare matters for the municipal council and municipal executive committee. The head of the city planning offices and municipality’s highest decision maker is the municipality’s Chief Executive Officer. Companies: Halmstad Rådhus AB is the parent company of the municipal group and has eight limited liability companies. The companies businesses include rental properties, airport, port, electricity sales and distribution, district heating plant, waste management, commercial companies and marketing of Halmstad as a destination and event location. Companies’ turnover: SEK 1,600 million.
MÖ 136
GÖTEBORG 14
A city of knowledge to grow in The municipality and Region Halland are Halmstad’s biggest employers. The Swedish Armed Forces with one of the country’s two military academies, Halmstad University, medi-tech company Getinge AB and Albany International are other major employers. Rapidly expanding HMS Industrial Network has been awarded the Stora
Exportpriset (Major Export Prize) by the Swedish Trade Council. The location with excellent public transport and proximity to the continent has led to growing logistics and trade. Biltema has established its logistics centre in Halmstad for its Nordic superstore expansion. The port has fixed links with major European container ports and commuter goods trains to Mälardalen and Norrland. The university has around 15,000 students and 600 employees with more than 80 courses for everything from nurses to development engineers. Science Park is a growth area for new knowledge companies.
Port of Halmstad
University & Trade Center
Halmstad is mainly characterised by many small and mid-sized companies, an open corporate climate and a growing number of entrepreneurs and new businesses. In 2008, Halmstad had Sweden’s most diversified trade and industry according to Statistics Sweden and there were 7,000 registered companies in the municipality in 2010.
rary – The new lib 600,000 more than ear! visitors a y
2 3,240 m of glass façade, 2 5,700 m of reading pleasure!
15 million m of parks and natural playgrounds 2
A city of experiences for all ages Hundreds of thousands of tourists come to Halmstad every summer to enjoy the miles of sandy beaches, deep forests and meandering waterways. Tourists also come to taste the vast range of entertainment, restaurants and culture. There are 45 kms of beaches in the municipality. The most well-known beach is Tylösand, which can have as many as 40,000 sunbathers and swimmers on it
on a hot July day. Sweden’s only manned lifeguard station and the Nordic region’s only sea rescue school are located here. Halmstad is characterised by a blossoming cultural life including music, theatre, galleries and museums. Mjellby Art Museum is Halmstadgruppen’s base but also provides exciting specialist exhibitions. The new City Library has received awards for its unique architecture and is a living centre for culture and quenching ones thirst for knowledge. Sport is important in Halmstad, both for players and spectators. Football, handball, table tennis and golf are just a few of the sports in which the people of Halmstad excel. Halmstad Arena is a recently-built multi-function arena with excellent opportunities and space for a broad range of sporting events and top-level sports, concerts and conferences.
olgården After beach at S in Tylösand!
Halmstad Arena – everything from Ladies’ Night to a skate park!
Major events: Solheim Cup 2007 • U21 European Championships in football in 2009 • Swedish Championship week 2011 • Stop-off port for The Tall Ships Races 2011 • O-ringen 2012 • European Championships for ladies 2013
174 golf holes at 11 golf courses!
21 large sports halls!
in 44,000 homes y – the municipalit a quarter of ted which are ren accommodation!
rea Total land a ctares – 101,902 he
Halmstad – past and future Everyone has a heart – but Halmstad has three. The city’s Coat of Arms dates back to 1603. There are a number of theories to why the crowned hearts became Halmstad’s symbol. One is that it dates back to the 13th century when Danish King Valdemar Sejrs’ descendants ruled Halland. These descendants had hearts in their Coat of Arms.
Halmstad’s oldest city charter is from 1307 and the city celebrated its 700th anniversary in 2007. The present day Halmstad municipality was formed in 1974 when the city and seven outlying rural municipalities merged. There are a total of 21 suburbs in the municipality, of which Oskarström and Getinge are the biggest outside the city limits.
When King Christian IV had to choose the Coat of Arms for Halmstad 300 years later, it was only natural for him to choose crowned hearts because they previously symbolized Halland in the Danish royal Coat of Arms. Halland was under Danish rule until 1645. The name Halmstad is documented as far back as the 13th century when the city was Danish. One theory is that the name comes from when there was a ford over the river Nissan. The word “stad” is probably a Swedish derivative of the Danish word “sted”, meaning “place” or “fording place”. The word “halm” is usually seen as another word for “grass” or “seaweed”.
The cast le
Nissastrand
820 kms of pipes bring water to Halmstad residnts’ taps
24,000 lamps light the streets and parks 38 schools, of which three each independent, t 8,850 approximately students
e7,000 meals are pr ols, pared daily at scho service apartments mes and elderly care ho pality around the munici
y The municipalit or is responsible f 800 kms of oads streets and r
Ready for act ion!
ng and old! Good food for you
Halmstads kommun, Box 153, 301 05 Halmstad, +46 (0)35 13 70 00 • www.halmstad.se facebook.com/halmstadskommun twitter.com/halmstadskommun
Production: Text-Media i Halland AB, Photos: Andreas Andersson, Jesper Petersson and Patrik Leonardsson, Printing: NRS Tryckeri 2011
approxi Halmstad has ces at mately 850 pla homes 17 elderly care ments and 400 apart ks in 11 service bloc
