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Kuusamo (; ; ; ) is a town and municipality in Finland. It is located in Koillismaa, the northeastern part of the Northern Ostrobothnia region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is .
The municipality is unilingually Finnish language.
Kuusamo is a major center for winter sports and receives approximately a million tourists every year. One of the largest ski resorts in Finland, Rukatunturi, is situated in Kuusamo. Ruka is also the host of many international competitions in ski jumping, cross-country skiing, and Nordic combined. The 2005 World Championships of Freestyle Skiing was held in Kuusamo. Kuusamo Airport is located northeast of Kuusamo's town centre.
As a Sami settlement the area belonged to Kuusamo Kemi-Lappmark at the time. Nominally it belonged to the territory of the Swedish province of Västerbotten, but the Swedish rule was limited to the collection of taxes. At the same time Russia collected taxes in the territory it deemed state-less.
The first parish in Kuusamo was founded in 1685. In 1687 a temporary chapel was built, in 1695 the first church. From the end of the 17th century the area around the lake Kuusamojärvi began to be called Kuusamo. The precise etymology of the name is unclear, however, one possible derivation is from a Sami word for "spruce forest".
The Swedish–Russian border had already been withdrawn east of Kuusamo in the 1595 Treaty of Teusina, but was long and porous. With the constant influx of new settlers, Kuusamo grew steadily in the 18th century. Agriculture, cattle and reindeer husbandry replaced nomadic cropping. Kuusamo around 1770 had about 2,000 inhabitants. In 1775 Kuusamo was removed from Lappmark and added to the newly formed province of Oulu. Because the population had increased, a new, larger church was built between 1797 and 1804. By the beginning of the 19th century the population had reached 3000 inhabitants, but a famine in 1803 and a smallpox epidemic the following year reduced the population again.
At the start of the Winter War Kuusamo was evacuated in December 1939 for fear of a Soviet invasion. In the Moscow Peace Treaty, the Winter War ended on 14 March 1940, Finland lost large parts of Karelia, the eastern areas of Salla and Kuusamo to the Soviet Union. The ceded part of Kuusamo had an area of 1653 square kilometers and included the villages Paanajärvi, Tavajärvi, Vatajärvi, Enojärvi, Pukari and Kenttikylä. Its 2100 residents were relocated to other parts of Kuusamo. During the Continuation War of 1941-1944 Kuusamo was used as a supply depot by German and Finnish troops. The Germans built the Hyrynsalmi-Kuusamo Line to move troops and supplies from Hyrynsalmi. When it appeared that Germany might lose the war, Finland secretly negotiated a separate peace with the Soviet Union. After news of the armistice, the civilian population once again abandoned the town for fear of Russian occupation. The Russians did briefly occupy Kuusamo and burned the village to the ground upon their departure. One of the requirements on the treaty was the removal of any and all German troops currently on Finnish soil, which escalated into a minor separate war commonly known as the Lapland War between the Finns and the Germans.
In the years between 1945 and 1952 Kuusamo was rebuilt. By the late 1960s, the population had grown to almost 21,000. As agriculture in the village could not offer enough jobs for the baby boomer generation, the population began to decline rapidly. In 1954, the first ski run on the Rukatunturi was created. Through the expansion of the Ruka ski center, Kuusamo became a tourist center. In 2000, the municipality of Kuusamo was made a town.
Kuusamo covers an area of of which is water. The community center of Kuusamo, where nearly two-thirds of the population live, is only a small part of the territory. The rest of the municipality consists of sparsely populated, mostly wooded areas. Therefore, the population density of Kuusamo is only . Apart from the city, villages include Alakitka, Heikkilä, Hiltunen, Irni, Jokilampi, Kallunki, Kantokylä, Kemilä, Kero, Kesäniemi, Kiitämäjärvi, Koskenkylä, Kuolio, Kurvinen, Kärpänkylä, Käylä, Lämsänkylä, Maaselänkylä, Murtovaara, Poussu, Puutteenkylä, Rukajärvi, Määttälänvaara, Soivio, Suorajärvi, Tammela, Teeriranta, Törmäsenvaara, Vasaraperä, Virrankylä, Vuotunki, Lehto and Kiviperä.
Ninety percent of the land area is forested. The forests consist mainly of pine trees (70%) with some spruce (20%) and deciduous trees (10%).Metsänhoitoyhdistys Kuusamo (Finn.) or 14% of the area of Kuusamo is covered by water. The largest of the 166 lakes in the area are Joukamojärvi, Kiitämä, Kitka, Kurkijärvi, Kuusamojärvi, Muojärvi and Suininki. Rivers in the area include Oulankajoki, Kitkajoki, Kuusinkijoki and Pistojoki flowing eastward to the White Sea and Iijoki westward to the Gulf of Bothnia.
The area of Oulanka National Park is shared between northern Kuusamo and neighboring Salla municipality. The landscape is dominated by pine forests, Oulankajoki river and its side branches with their sandbanks and rapids, and in the northern part vast marsh areas. In the wilderness live 30 species of mammals and 120 species of birds, including brown, stone and white-tailed eagle. Eurasian wolf and Eurasian lynx are rare. Animals in Oulanka (finnische Forstbehörde, engl.) Rapids in Oulankajoki include Kiutaköngäs, Taivalköngäs, Jyrävä, Niskakoski, and Myllykoski. Near the southern border with Suomussalmi is the canyon lake Julma Ölkky with cliffs up to high.
According to IQAir, Kuusamo's air quality is the cleanest in the world; small particulates are present in the air at only 0.2 μg/m3.
The center of Kuusamo is located approximately south of the Arctic Circle, so does not technically experience midnight sun or polar night play a major role, but does experience very long days (White nights) in the summer and sees very little direct sunlight around the winter solstice . From 14 to 29 June, Kuusamo has nearly midnight sun.
The migration has had an effect on Kuusamo's age structure, as it is mainly young people who leave the town. For example, between 1998 and 2001, the percentage of people aged less than 15 years fell from 25% to 23%, while the share of those aged over 64 years rose from 12 to 14%. Kuusamo Taskutieto (Info-Broschüre der Stadt Kuusamo) (finn.)
| 18,639 |
| 20,795 |
| 19,974 |
| 18,161 |
| 17,923 |
| 18,061 |
| 18,687 |
| 17,891 |
| 17,729 |
| 17,405 |
| 17,113 |
| 16,779 |
In 2002 there were 248 farms in Kuusamo. Given the climatic conditions, milk and meat production have a major role, including reindeer meat from the approximately 10,000 semi-domesticated reindeer which roam the pastures in Kuusamo. The forestry and wood processing industry also employs over 1,000 people.
Tourism income in Kuusamo on 2024 was 149 MEur (18 % of the total turnover across all industries). Tourism provided year-round employment for 649 residents of Kuusamo in 2024 (17,1 % of the total full-time equivalent jobs in the region). [4] (Visitory.io tourism income)
The Ruka ski center, centered on the 492-metre Rukatunturi, is one of the largest in Finland with a total of 12,000 beds, five hotels and 28 restaurants. Activities include skiing, snowmobile tours and excursions with reindeer and dog sleds. Ruka benefits from a long snowy season, from October to May, and snow-how in snow making. Ruka.fi (Ruka.fi snowhow)
In summer, Kuusamo is a popular wilderness destination for angling, kayaking and hiking. The most popular hiking trail is Bear's Ring (Karhunkierros), which runs for , mostly in the Oulanka National Park.
Kuusamo Airport is from the city center and from Ruka. It was opened in 1969 and has since been expanded several times. The airline Finnair offers daily direct flights from Helsinki, adding charter flights during the tourist season. Seasonal flights are offered by Lufthansa from Frankfurt, Edelweiss Air from Zurich and Eurowings by Dûsseldorf. In 2024, 129,373 passengers used the airport.[7] (Finavia traffic statistics)
The Kuusamo Hall in the town center, completed in 1996, acts as a convention and cultural center. In it one can find regular musical and theatrical performances as well as changing art exhibitions. The Kuusamo Local History Museum is an outdoor museum that has been established on a historic farm. Additionally, a school museum is set up in the old school of Kirkkoketo.
The church in the center of Kuusamo was built in 1951. It stands on the site of the old wooden church from 1802, which was burnt down in 1944 Lapland War by German troops. At that time German soldiers buried the two church bells (one endowed to the church by Charles XI of Sweden in 1698, and the other originating from the year 1721) in the cemetery to secure them from the advancing Soviet troops. The bells were considered lost until 1959, when the former German regimental commander visited Kuusamo and revealed the location of the buried bells. Today these same bells are housed in the rebuilt church.
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