Rääkkylä is a municipality of Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

.

It is located in the province

Provinces of Finland

The state of Finland consisted of six provinces between the years 1997 and 2009. The provincial authority was part of the central government's executive branch, not directly elected. The system was created in 1634, and its makeup was changed drastically in 1997, when the number of the provinces...

 of Eastern Finland

Eastern Finland

Eastern Finland was a province of Finland from 1997 to 2010. It bordered the provinces of Oulu, Western Finland and Southern Finland. It also bordered Russia.- History :...

 and is part of the North Karelia

North Karelia

North Karelia is a region in eastern Finland. It borders to the regions of Kainuu, Northern Savonia, Southern Savonia, South Karelia and to Russia.The city of Joensuu is the centre of the North Karelia region.- Municipalities :...

 region

Regions of Finland

Finland consists of 19 regions called in Finnish and in Swedish. The regions are governed by regional councils, which serve as forums of cooperation for the municipalities of a region. The main tasks of the regions are regional planning and development of enterprise and education. In addition,...

. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of km2 of which km2 is water. The population density

Population density

Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 is PD/km2.

The municipality is unilingually Finnish

Finnish language

Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...

. The municipality has previously also been known as "Bräkylä" in Swedish

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

 documents, but is today referred to as "Rääkkylä" also in Swedish.

Rääkkylä as an independent municipality was established in 1874 from parts of Kitee

Kitee

Kitee is a town and a municipality of Finland.It is located in the province of Eastern Finland and is part of the North Karelia region. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is water...

 and Liperi

Liperi

Liperi is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Eastern Finland and is part of the North Karelia region. Liperi is a picturesque community of with the growth rate of 83 newcomers in 11 months in 2007. The population density is...

.

Notable residents of Rääkkylä have included sisters Mari and Sari Kaasinen

Sari Kaasinen

Sari Johanna Kaasinen is a Finnish singer. Together with her sister she began a Finnish folk music band called Värttinä....

, founders of the popular Finnish folk music

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 band Värttinä

Värttinä

Värttinä is a Finnish folk music band which was started as a project by Sari and Mari Kaasinen back in 1983 in the village of Rääkkylä, in Karelia, the southeastern region of Finland. Many transformations have taken place in the band since then...

.

External links

• Municipality of Rääkkylä – Official website