Järvenpää, Uusimaa, Finland

🇫🇮 Järvenpää is a town and municipality in Finland. It is located on the Helsinki–Riihimäki railway track in Uusimaa region, some 37 km north of Helsinki. Neighbouring municipalities are Tuusula, Sipoo and Mäntsälä. People also refer to Kerava as Järvenpää's neighbour, even though they do not technically share a border, thanks to the one kilometre-wide land area that belongs to Tuusula.

History The first documented mention of the village of Järvenpää is found in a tax list from 1540, where it is named in Swedish as Treskendaby; starting from the next decade, its Finnish name was used in parallel, in forms such as Jerffuepä or Järuenpää. Around this time, the village was documented to consist of eight estates. Prior to being transferred to the newly formed chapel of Tuusula in 1643, Järvenpää was part of the parish of Sipoo; Tuusula, in turn, became an independent pastorate (kirkkoherrakunta) in 1654.

While the population in Järvenpää had long been stagnant, it had started expanding again by the late 1700s, thanks to the evolution of agriculture at the time. In the middle of the 1800s, Järvenpää together with Nummenkylä formed the most populous village of Tuusula with around 450 inhabitants. Thanks to its location on the road between Helsinki and Mäntsälä, the village had grown into a minor concentration of commerce, with the presence of a kestikievari - a type of tavern - and several craftsmen. Thanks to these factors, one of the original intermediate stations of the Helsinki–Riihimäki railway was placed in Järvenpää.

Järvenpää was separated from its parent community Tuusula in 1951. Järvenpää was granted the status of a market town (kauppala) after the separation. Neighbouring districts Kellokoski and Nummenkylä were not added to the municipality of Järvenpää, and controversy over this decision exists to this day. In the event, Kellokoski remained part of the municipality of Tuusula. Bjarne Westermarck developed Järvenpää and is considered to be the founder of the town and was honored at its centennial celebrations by the release of a book about Järvenpää. Järvenpää was granted full legal town (kaupunki) status in 1967.

Geography Järvenpää is divided into 25 neighbourhoods: 1 Keskus [fi]

2 Loutti [fi]

3 Saunakallio [fi]

4 Kyrölä [fi]

5 Kinnari [fi]

6 Pöytäalho [fi]

7 Pajala [fi]

8 Sorto [fi]

9 Jamppa [fi]

10 Wärtsilä [fi]

11 Nummenkylä [fi]

12 Peltola [fi]

13 Isokytö [fi]

14 Pietilä [fi]

15 Haarajoki

16 Mylly [fi]

17 Mikonkorpi [fi]

18 Satumetsä [fi]

19 Terhola [fi]

20 Satukallio [fi]

21 Ristinummi [fi]

22 Lepola [fi]

23 Terioja [fi]

24 Vanhakylä [fi]

25 Kaakkola [fi]

Demographics The city of Järvenpää has 46,475 inhabitants, making it the 24th most populous municipality in Finland. The city of Järvenpää is part of the Helsinki region, which is the largest urban area in Finland with 1,583,038 inhabitants. In Järvenpää, 7.3% of the population has a foreign background, which is below the national average.

In 2020, 16.8% of the population of Järvenpää was under the age of 15, 64.3% were aged 15 to 64, and 18.9% were over the age of 65. In 2019, out of the total population of 43,711, the entire urban population of Järvenpää was localized in a single urban area. Only 42 people lived in sparsely populated areas, while the coordinates of 729 people were unknown. This made Järvenpää's degree of urbanization 99.9%.

Languages Population by mother tongue (2022)

  Finnish (91.7%)

  Estonian (1.4%)

  Russian (1.3%)

  Swedish (1.0%)

  Arabic (0.5%)

  English (0.4%)

  Vietnamese (0.3%)

  Other (3.4%)

Järvenpää is a monolingual Finnish-speaking municipality. The majority of the population - 41,856 people or 91.7% - speak Finnish as their first language. In Järvenpää, 471 people, or 1.0% of the population, speak Swedish. 7.2% of the population of Järvenpää have a mother tongue other than Finnish or Swedish. As English and Swedish are compulsory school subjects, functional bilingualism or trilingualism acquired through language studies is not uncommon.

At least 30 different languages are spoken in Järvenpää. The most common foreign languages are Estonian (1.4%), Russian (1.3%), Arabic (0.5%) and English (0.4%).

Immigration In 2022, there were 3,323 persons with a migrant background living in Järvenpää, or 7.3% of the population. The number of residents who were born abroad was 3,183, or 7.0% of the population. The number of persons with foreign citizenship living in Järvenpää was 2,153. Most foreign-born citizens came from Estonia, the former Soviet Union, Sweden and Vietnam.

The relative share of immigrants in Järvenpää's population is below the national average. However, the city's new residents are increasingly of foreign origin. This will increase the proportion of foreign residents in the coming years.

Religion In 2022, the Evangelical Lutheran Church was the largest religious group with 61.5% of the population of Järvenpää. Other religious groups accounted for 3.1% of the population. 35.5% of the population had no religious affiliation.

Culture In the early 20th century Järvenpää had a large artist community, including Jean Sibelius, Juhani Aho and Eero Järnefelt. This was partly true because of a railway connection to Helsinki.

Järvenpää is widely known as the location of Ainola, the home of the composer Jean Sibelius. It is situated about two km south of the city centre. The composer moved with his family to the cottage designed by Lars Sonck on September 24, 1904, and he lived there until his death in 1957. Ainola is open for visitors in the summer months as the "museum of Sibelius".

Juhani Aho moved with his wife Venny Soldan-Brofeldt to Järvenpää in 1897. They lived there for fourteen years in a villa, called Vårbacka, next to the shore of Lake Tuusula. The villa was later called Ahola.

The K-Citymarket of Järvenpää was awarded the Grocery Store of the Year title in 2019 by the IGD of the United Kingdom.

Events Events are held in the Järvenpää-talo (lit. Järvenpää-house) throughout the year: concerts, theatre and art-shows. The favorite-place of children is Pikku-Aino's home, where children can play, make shows and so on.

There is a musical event, which is arranged every year, called Puistoblues [fi] (lit. Park Blues). "Blues-week" starts from the "Blues street" of the city centre, and concerts and informal sessions are arranged in bars and restaurants. The main concert is at the end of Blues-week, and is arranged in Vanhankylänniemi on the Saturday.

Järvenpää celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2021.

Transport The railroad goes through the city centre. In addition to the main railway station, there are the stations of Ainola, Saunakallio and Haarajoki.

The trip to Helsinki takes about half an hour, whether by rail or road, and to the airport of Helsinki-Vantaa about 20 minutes. Train connections to the capital are good. Uusimaa's trains leave the main station twice an hour, and from other stations once an hour.