Pargas
Pargas
Pargas – Parainen | |
|---|---|
Town | |
| Pargas stad Paraisten kaupunki | |
The city centre of Pargas | |
Location of Pargas in Finland | |
| Coordinates: 60°18′N 022°18′E / 60.300°N 22.300°E | |
| Country | Finland |
| Region | Southwest Finland |
| Sub-region | Åboland |
| Charter | 2009 |
| Seat | Pargas |
| Government | |
| • Town manager | Tom Simola |
| Area (2018-01-01) | |
• Total | 5,548.17 km2 (2,142.16 sq mi) |
| • Land | 883.98 km2 (341.31 sq mi) |
| • Water | 4,666.46 km2 (1,801.73 sq mi) |
| • Rank | 88th largest in Finland |
| Population (2025-03-31) | |
• Total | 14,829 |
| • Rank | 76th largest in Finland |
| • Density | 16.78/km2 (43.5/sq mi) |
| Population by native language | |
| • Swedish | 53.9% (official) |
| • Finnish | 41.5% |
| • Others | 4.7% |
| Population by age | |
| • 0 to 14 | 15.1% |
| • 15 to 64 | 56.7% |
| • 65 or older | 28.1% |
| Time zone | UTC+02:00 (EET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+03:00 (EEST) |
| Website | www |
Pargas (Finnish: Parainen) is a town and municipality of Finland, in the Archipelago Sea, the biggest archipelago in the world by the number of islands, 50,000. The big limestone mine in Pargas is the base of the main industry and except for the central parts, the municipality is still mostly rural.
Pargas is located in Åboland in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Southwest Finland region. It was created as Väståboland on 1 January 2009 in Southwest Finland, when the municipalities of Pargas, Nagu, Korpo, Houtskär and Iniö were merged into a single municipality.
The municipality has a population of 14,829 (31 March 2025) and covers an area of 5,548.17 square kilometres (2,142.16 sq mi) of which 4,666.46 km2 (1,801.73 sq mi) is water. The population density is 16.78 inhabitants per square kilometre (43.5/sq mi).
Pargas is a bilingual municipality with Finnish and Swedish as its official languages. The population consists of 41% Finnish speakers, 54% Swedish speakers, and 5% speakers of other languages.