Vaala
Municipality in North Ostrobothnia, Finland
Vaala (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈʋɑːlɑ]) is a municipality in Finland. It is located in the North Ostrobothnia region. Established in 1954 (predecessor municipality Säräisniemi, established in 1867), the municipality has a population of 2,544 (31 December 2025) and covers an area of 1,764.04 square kilometres (681.10 sq mi) of which 461.45 km2 (178.17 sq mi) is water. The population density is 1.95 inhabitants per square kilometre (5.1/sq mi). Previously Vaala was part of the Kainuu region but was transferred to Northern Ostrobothnia on 1 January 2016. The municipality is unilingually Finnish.
Half of Oulujärvi, the fifth largest lake of Finland is located in Vaala. Vaala is also an old Finnish word, which means the phase in a river just before rapids.
Google is planning a data center to be located in Vaala.
01History
The original center of the area was Manamansalo, the largest island in the Oulujärvi with a village by the same name. Both it and Säräisniemi were first mentioned in 1555 when they were parts of the large Liminka parish. The parish of Oulujärvi, covering all of Kainuu with its center in Manamansalo, was separated from Liminka in 1559, but merged back into Liminka in the 1580s after Russians raided the island. In 1599, the area became a parish again, this time with its center in Paltaniemi, due to which the parish was now known as Paltamo.
Säräisniemi acquired its own church under Paltamo in 1779 and became a separate parish and municipality in 1864. Vuolijoki was separated from Säräisniemi as a parish in 1896 and as a municipality in 1915. Some parts of Kajaanin maalaiskunta were also used in the municipality's formation. The village of Vaala was transferred from Utajärvi to Säräisniemi in 1954, becoming the new administrative center of the municipality. The municipality itself was also renamed Vaala in the process.
Vaala was transferred from Kainuu to North Ostrobothnia in 2016.
02Dialect
Vaala is located on the border between the Northern Ostrobothnian and Savonian (Kainuu) dialects.
03Notable people
- Anne Huotari (born 1959)
- Maustetytöt, band
- Tytti Seppänen (born 1980)
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Vaala”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Vaalankurkku railway bridge.jpg by Teemu Vehkaoja (TeVe), CC BY 2.5
- Vaala murrealueet.svg by Fenn-O-maniC, CC BY-SA 4.0
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