About Umeå and Umeå university

Umeå was founded in 1622 by king Gustavus Adolphus. The name of the town derives from the Sámi word Ume, which means "the noisy river". No more than 37 people were registered as residents in 1639. Today Umeå has 111,000 residents. Extensive surveys conducted by some influential Swedish newspapers have shown that Umeå is the best place in Sweden to live, work and study. Umeå gets top ratings when Swedish municipalities are compared. This positive development can to a large extent be attributed to the people who have moved to Umeå. The fact is that 6,000 - 6,500 people move to Umeå each year and, of Umeå's 111,000 inhabitants, 55% are people who have moved into the area. Around 50,000 of Umeå's inhabitants are from other regions of Sweden and about 7,000 have their roots abroad.

It goes without saying that Umeå University's multi-faceted education and research resources are the primary reason for Umeå's appeal, and students are also drawn to the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). The University Hospital (NUS) is another driving force in Umeå's development. Not only does the hospital have specialist care and research units that are of a high international standard, but it also serves as general hospital for the region, with a catchment area of one million patients.

The average age of the inhabitants is 37 years, which is much lower than the national average - no wonder the town is called Young Umeå! Apparently, Umeå has the sportiest students in Sweden. Both the municipality and the university have invested a great deal in sport and leisure facilities.

On Midsummer's day 1888, most of the town of Umeå was burnt to the ground. It was a hot, windy day and nothing was left except the prison. Further south in Sweden, Sundsvall suffered the same fate on the same day. Sundsvall was rebuilt in stone but in Umeå there were few who could afford to build stone houses. The town was rebuilt in timber, but the architectural style is that of nineteenth-century stone houses. When new plans to rebuild the town centre were drawn up, an important innovation was the introduction of firebreaks in the form of broad streets and avenues lined with birch trees. Umeå soon became known as the Town of the Birches.

When it comes to entertainment and culture, Umeå has a lot to offer. The annual international jazz festival has brought many of the biggest names in the world of jazz to Umeå. There are also festivals for chamber music, folk music and swing as well as a film festival. There is a symphony orchestra and Norrland's own opera company. There are choirs, theatre companies, cultural societies, galleries and a museum devoted to graphic images.

Norrland's biggest town is also Norrland's biggest tourist destination. Umeå has about three million visitors every year, most of them passing through in the summer on their way to the North Cape. People visiting Umeå usually pay a visit to Gammlia, Umeå's open-air museum where Västerbottens Museum is also situated. The museum has excellent permanent exhibitions for an insight into the history of the county. There is a museum of skiing where you can see everything from the oldest ski in the world to the equipment used by Sweden's modern skiing heroes, an art gallery and a museum of fishing. The first tourists arrived here five thousand years ago, members of a hunter-gatherer culture. Like modern tourists they are certain to have enjoyed salmon from the mighty River Ume. Their postcards are still here, addressed to travellers down the ages: carvings in stone beside the rapids. Visitors can find out all about the prehistoric carvings or about other destinations like the first hydroelectric station on the river at Klabböle, or its giant latter-day counterpart at Stornorrfors, at the Tourist Bureau.

You can find more information on the Umeå home page:
Umeå home page (English version)
Umeå Tourist Office

We hope that you will enjoy your stay in Umeå! Welcome!

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