Norrbotten County

Norrbotten County (Norrbottens län) is a Swedish county or län in the extreme north of Sweden. It borders to Västerbotten County and the Gulf of Bothnia. It also borders to Lapland Province in Finland, Nordland and Troms counties in Norway.

Province

• Today: Norrbotten and Laponia.
• Historically: Västerbotten and Laponia

Norrbotten has only gradually been come to be referred to as a province, following the county borders drawn in 1810. Historically, Västerbotten was the denomination for northern Sweden.

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Cultural identification in Sweden is closely related to the historical Provinces of Sweden, and the people in the coastal region of Norrbotten County, are in this sense living in Northern Västerbotten, or Norra Västerbotten. In order not to be confused with people from Southern Västerbotten, i.e. the coastal region of Västerbotten County, they started to identify themselves with the county rather than with the historical province. By the early 20th century Swedes had in general started referring to northern Sweden as Norrbotten. Specifically this came to mean that Norrbotten, at times referred to just Northern Westrobothnia, rather than to the whole of Norrbotten County. In this Norrbotten also came to be seen as being on equal footing with the historical provinces, even if it never had been one itself, and from the 1980s it has adopted or has been assigned provincial symbols. There is a coat of arms for Norrbotten County, but Norrbotten designated as a traditional province does not hold any distinction of this kind.

Related Topics:
Provinces of Sweden - Västerbotten - Västerbotten County - 20th century - 1980s

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