GENERAL INFORMATION
The city of Jyväskylä was inaugurated as a town in 1837 and is located in the lake district of Central Finland.
From 1 January 2009, three municipalities the City of Jyväskylä, the Rural Municipality of Jyväskylä and the municipality of Korpilahti will merge into one city, Jyväskylä. As a result, the City of Jyväskylä will become the seventh largest city in Finland and has over 130 000 inhabitants
Jyväskylä is a school and university town with 47 000 students during the academic year, providing a diversity of educational offerings for people of all ages. The multi-disciplinary University of Jyväskylä and the JAMK University of Applied Sciences are among Finland's leading research and educational institutions with an increasing number of international students.
Jyväskylä is home for a large variety of cultural activities such as concerts, festivals, museums and theatres. The Jyväskylä Arts Festival, which is the oldest on-going summer festival in Scandinavia, concentrates on non-verbal theatre. Jyväskylä is also a broad-based city of music with its own symphony orchestra, Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä, as well as a children's music orchestra called Loiskis. In Jyväskylä art as a hobby can be started even before school age and continued until a professional qualification is attained.
Every year several domestic and international congresses are held at the congress and trade fair centre, Jyväskylän Paviljonki. Internationally Jyväskylä is perhaps best known for the architecture of Alvar Aalto, for the world championship rally ”Neste Oil Rally Finland” and for Graphica Creativa, an international triennale for graphic art.
Jyväskylä is one of Finland's centres of growth. Special expertise can be found in the fields of paper manufacturing and paper machinery as well as energy production, environmental, information and wellness technology. Nanotechnology is one of the newest areas of expertise. An important incubator for new business and companies is the Jyväskylä Science Park, combining newest research and development to the needs of business life. The Human Technologies Centre Agora focuses on developing human-centered information technology and creates new kind of interaction between high-level research, education, enterprises, and the local community.
The landscape of Jyväskylä is varied with lakes, forests and hills within a walking distance of the city centre. The Laajavuori skiing centre and recreation area provides excellent opportunities for winter sports and other activities. Lively pedestrian precinct and beautiful university campus right in the city centre are central places for different events.
The Jyväskylä region is easily reached by land and air: the distance of 270 kilometres from Helsinki takes only 35 minutes by plane and some 3 hours by car or by rail.
Facts about Jyväskylä:
- founded in 1837
- area 1171 km2
- over 130 000 inhabitants in the city of Jyväskylä
- first class university and polytechnic
- excellent self-sufficiency in terms of jobs
- special expertise in paper manufacturing, information, wellness, energy, environmental and nanotechnology
