Kauniainen

From Free net encyclopedia

Kauniainen (IPA: /ˈkɑu.ni.ɑiˌnen/; Grankulla in Swedish) is a small town of 8,454 inhabitants (as of December 2005) in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland. It is a legally independent suburb within the city of Espoo, in Greater Helsinki. Kauniainen was founded as a corporation in 1906 in Espoo, in order to create a suburb for villas; a similar scheme was used by Danderyd in Stockholm, Sweden. Kauniainen received the status of a municipality in 1920, the Finnish name in 1949, and the title of kaupunki ("city, town") in 1972.

The local taxation rate in Kauniainen is the lowest in Finland (16%), and so it tends to attract the highest earners, hence it is a generally wealthy place, and hence it can keep the taxation rate low without compromising the service to the inhabitants.

Approximately 40% of the population have Swedish as their mother tongue; the rest are Finnish speakers. The dominant party in the town assembly has traditionally been the Swedish People's Party.

The following parties have seats in the town assembly of Kauniainen (2004 - 2008):

Total: 35 seats.

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