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