Municipalköping Explained

Municipalköping was a type of local government (municipality) in Sweden. Mostly these were minor trade towns with very limited city rights (market rights), which were delegated from larger cities in the same region.

In 1863 the first local government acts were implemented in Sweden. Officially, the term municipalköping disappeared with this reform. There were two acts in the 1863 reform, one for towns and one for rural areas. But under the "rural" act there were also eight market towns, which were instituted as municipalities. This third category included köping, municipalköping and municipalsamhälle. Most of the 95 köpingar became municipalities. The last municipalköping was incorporated into a large municipality in 1956.

Those market towns that did not develop into a municipality are now occasionally referred to as municipalköping, which is more a cultural term in the present-day language.

Settlements that were municipalköpingar

Settlement County (1971) County (2009) Inhabitants (2000) Remarks
1.008 terminated as municipalköping in the 1890s
municipalsamhälle from 1921 to 1955
4.683 became köping Jan. 1st 1937 and municipality in 1971
839 became köping Jan. 1st 1878 Oskarshamn
2.976 merged with Gamleby (landskommun) Jan 1st 1956 Västervik
80 incorporated in Jämjö municipality Jan 1st 1952 Karlskrona
14.485 became stad Jan 1st 1936 Ljungby
1.788 became köping Jan. 1st 1881Mörbylånga
12.322 municipalköping Febr. 3rd 1865
became köping April 25, 1879
Nybro
20 incorporated in Ålem municipality Jan. 1st 1954 Mönsterås
1.144 incorporated in Döderhult municipality Jan. 1st 1952 Oskarshamn
24.850 became köping Jan. 1st 1843
became stad Jan 1st 1866
Trelleborg
2.954 became köping Jan. 1st 1914Valdemarsvik

See also